I'd Go With You
by DeathMcGunz
Summary: This story has been redone. Check out I'd Go With You: Retry if you want that.
1. Power Surge

**Reviews are nice, so if you could leave one that would be very much appreciated.**

The map was still, the trees didn't even stir in the wind. The silence was the most uncomfortable thing for the Spartan crouched in the small cave near the beach head at the bottom of the hill. If there was no noise, then she only had her best guess as to where they enemy lied in wait for him.

Staying crouched, she peaked out from behind the cave wall and, with her Battle Rifle in hand, swept the front of the fortress that lay before her. The building was an old UNSC military base that was reactivated after the slip space rupture in New Mombasa, with on small structure towering over the rest of the base.

She didn't see any movement so she dashed forward toward the small, crumbling stone wall that had a drop pod from a UNSC carrier on the other side. The Spartan reached over the wall and retrieved the weapon that was in the pod, an M41 rocket launcher, and attached it to the back section of her armor.

After waiting a few seconds to see if she was spotted, she sprung up and ran toward the other section of the cave that led toward the bases tunnel entrance. She would use the tunnel entrance to enter behind the enemy, and then continue to sweep each room until she found her and eliminated her.

The plan would have been perfect if it wasn't for one small detail, the blue orb that allowed anyone to have active camouflage that was located in the cave was gone. This could only mean the enemy had it, which means she wouldn't have been able to see her, even if she was in the open.

It was too late. The shotgun shell entered her back and blew her down to the ground.

"No way!" Taylor yelled into her headset. "You were behind me the entire time!?"

A laugh came over the headset.

"You sneaky devil." Taylor said as she impatiently waited for the game to end and for 'the enemy' to stop T-bagging her dead corpse. "That's necrophilia you know."

"Shut up." Zoey said still laughing. "You're the one that taught me that anyway."

"That's because I'm a necro," She joked back to her, "Didn't you know?"

Zoey laughed again as the screen went black and returned them both to the pregame lobby.

"Let's check those stats and see how badly you cheated." Taylor taunted as she opened up the stats menu and began sifting through the data that it showed. "Your other four kills were with the ghost."

"The ghost rocks," Zoey defended, "And besides, your only kill was with a sticky."

"But it was a bad ass sticky," Taylor said, causing Zoey to laugh again, "Got you all the way across the map."

They both laughed for a second before Taylor heard someone come into the background of Zoey's headset.

"Ok….yeah….yes," She must be talking to someone, probably her parents. Taylor never said anything to Zoey, but Taylor hated it when people didn't mute their mics while they were talking to someone else; it was like hearing half of a conversation. "Yeah, I'll do it."

Zoey stopped talking for a moment and let out a sight, so Taylor assumed the other person was gone.

"Who was that?" She asked relatively curious, "You sounded angry."

"It was my dad," Zoey said sounding mildly annoyed, "I have to go to some stupid dance type thing for his work. 'Families invited'".

"When do you have to go?" She really wanted to play a few more matched before Zoey had to leave, she had nothing planned all day, and Zoey was pretty much her only source of fun these days.

"Like now." A rock dropped into Taylor's stomach.

At that moment there was a quiet beep and the indication someone had sent her a game invite had popped up on to her screen. That was strange, there were no other friends online besides Zoey, and she didn't recognize the name.

"xXMenDiCaNt BiAsXx" Taylor said over the mic, slowly saying every letter. Zoey and her had always thought it was ridiculous to put the 'xX' before and after your name, so they decided to make fun of it instead of complain about it. It was just one of their many hobbies they acquired over their two year friendship on Xbox live.

"Who's that?" Zoey asked.

"I dunno, the guy just sent me a game invite."

"Well accept it and invite me, I have time for ONE more match."

Taylor felt like the stone in her stomach had vanished, if only just for now, and she opened up the Dashboard and accepted xXMenDiCaNt BiAsXx's game invite for Halo 3. When she joined the lobby, the guy who sent the invite was no longer in the party.

It was a strange lobby too, the map name was Harvest and the picture accompanying it was that of a large field. There was no game type, only a countdown. 60…59…58…

"Hey, you might want to join now," Taylor said as she sent Zoey the invite, "This looks like some sort of self starting modded map."

"Oh yeah?" Zoey asked as she joined. "Remember when we used to mod back on halo 2?"

"And we had that giant snorlax in the middle of 'Sanctuary'", she answered as they both began laughing again.

50…49…48….

"This game better not take too long, I don't want my dad coming in here and telling me to get ready again."

"I really wish you didn't have to go, I've got nothing to do today." Taylor said as the stone began to reform in her stomach giving her that feeling of sadness again.

"Didn't you say there was a football game at your high school tonight?"

"Yeah, but it's not any fun really." They truthfully weren't anymore, most of her friends stopped going so it was usually just her sitting in the cold watching her team get stomped each game. "Besides I'd have no one to go with."

"Well neither do I," Zoey said trying to sound supportive in her own way, "But I'd go with you if I lived there."

It always made Taylor happy when Zoey said things like that. She knew it was kind of lame to think of her like that, but no matter how she tried to explain it to herself it just came out as 'she's my best friend'.

"Yeah," Taylor said quietly, "I'd go with you too."

40…39…38

There was an awkward silence for a moment until Zoey heard a strange but familiar static come across the headset.

"Are you playing that damn electric twanger?" Zoey said mimicking an old man's voice.

Taylor didn't say anything; she just laughed and continued playing. It always bugged Zoey; she never knew if Taylor was any good, or if she was just strumming it to annoy her, since the only thing Zoey could here was static.

"Are you any good at that?" Zoey asked.

"Umm, yeah I suppose."

"How long have you been playing?"

"Since the end of eight grade, so almost four years."

"Well if you're not good then you should probably pick a different hobby." They both laughed as the timer reached the twenty second mark.

When it came time they both counted down from ten as loud as they could, trying to beat each other and make the other one laugh.

"10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1!"

Then there was blackness.

"Power Surge." Taylor said to herself disappointed at the fact that she wasn't going to play with Zoey. It was also disappointing that she wasn't going to be able to see that map; it looked like it was going to be pretty interesting.

It was only around noon, but she felt pretty tired all of a sudden so she laid her head back expecting to not be able to get to sleep like usual, but she drifted off almost immediately.

"I'd go with you." Those words rang through Taylor's head as she began to sleep. "I'd go with you."

…

Taylor had the most amazing dream; it started with her being only five again, on an unfamiliar planet. Then it went to her being abducted and put into the Spartan II program, it went through most of her training. She watched her body change from the pathetic, lanky form it had been, to the roman statue body build of the Spartans.

She watched as she learned all the military language, all the hand signs, all the code words, she watched as he became the hero that earth needed her to be. Then it stopped, and she began to be wisped through space at what seemed like warp speeds, passing the various battles and locales of the Halo universe until finally reaching Harvest, the place of first contact with the covenant.

Then she woke up…

…

Taylor felt like someone drove a car into her, her whole body ached and she had a massive Migraine. She began to get up from bed when she hit her head on the bunk above her, which needless to say, didn't help the migraine one bit.

"What the fuck?" Taylor asked. How could she hit her head on the bed above her if her bed was never a bunk bed?

She slid out from the bed onto the freezing cold steel beneath, which caused her to fall back onto her bed. Her floors were carpeted; this had to be some kind of joke, or a dream or something. She looked around to get the surroundings; it was a small room with only the bed she was sitting on and two small desks.

There was a label on her bed and she leaned close to read it.

"Spartan 086" was all it had on it.

The only words Taylor could muster were "No fucking way."


	2. High of 86

**Please review, even if it's just like a one word response, it's nice to know if people are actually reading. **

Taylor was ecstatic, she felt confused, she felt every emotion that she possibly could. She was staring at the label on her bed with a feeling of disbelief, there was no possible way she had become a Spartan. It had to be a dream, it just had to be.

Dream or no dream, it felt real, the migraine, the aching body, the bruise on her head, the cold floor, all of it. She tried to stand up again, this time placing each foot slowly on to the cold steel ground, and after giving each foot some time to adjust she was able to get out of bed.

She looked to the bunk above her to see if there was anyone in it, and there was. She looked to be about the same age as Taylor was, with all of her hair shaved off and the same kind of jump suit Taylor was wearing, light grey with a darker shade of gray going from the neck to the groin. The tag on her bunk read "Spartan 087".

Taylor thought about the number, she remembered reading it in one of the Halo books, "The Fall of Reach", but she couldn't quite put a name to it. She could only remember two of the female Spartans' names, but it might not even be them, there were probably more; she was living proof of it.

She saw a mirror on the wall above one of the desks and walked over to it. Thinking it was still a dream, she half expected to see some type of weird creature behind her, or for her head to be replaced by an elite's, but that wasn't the case.

She could hardly believe that what she was looking at was her. The only thing that made her sure it was herself was her bright green eyes; they seemed to glow even in the darkness of the room. As for her body, her lanky arms were replaced by delicate, but deadly counterparts, along with her legs. Her upper body was something she couldn't even begin to explain. She was at that perfect state of being strong, but not muscular; the only muscles she could see were her abs, which she enjoyed.

The only thing she seemed to be sad about was her hair. It was all shaven off, but it was still somehow attractive, like in a weird "V-For-Vendetta" way.

"Damn," She said quietly examining her person. "I look good."

The jumpsuit she wore was skin tight, which would have embarrassed the hell out of her before, but now it made her face light up in glee. Her body resembled that of a Greek statues', if this was a dream it was a damn good one. She had the body any woman would kill for, and she was in the world she had always dreamed of, this wasn't a dream, it was paradise.

She heard someone moving in the bunk and she turned around. The Spartan girl had herself propped up on her elbow and her eyes were fixed on Taylor.

"What are you doing up?" Her voice was soft, but strong like a soldiers, the kind of voice that demanded an answer.

_What do I say? What do I say? What do I say?_

"Couldn't sleep." Taylor answered not adverting her gaze from the spartan girl; she didn't want to seem suspicious, even though she probably did with that answer. Did Spartans have sleeping problems, was that even possible? Of course it was, they were human just like everyone else, unless they already had the augmentations.

"Well you should probably try," She said as she laid on her back and pulled the sheet over her, "We've got a big day coming up."

"Big day?"

_Oh you idiot, why wouldn't you know what the 'big day' was._

"Just get some sleep." That sounded more like an order rather than a request, so she stepped over to the bed and lied down. She didn't want to sleep for fear of waking up back on earth, but she was tired, so she closed her eyes and drifted off.

Taylor woke up a few hours later to the sound of someone screaming. It sounded like the Drill Instructors she always saw on T.V while watching the military channel, screaming insults that didn't matter; they were only there to get us up.

Fear suddenly began to grip at her chest, she didn't even think about what was going to happen. What would she have to do? What if they found out she wasn't from this universe? Taylor didn't know anything about war, except from what she had witnessed on the television back home, so what happened if they asked her to do something and she couldn't, she was never actually trained as a Spartan.

"Relax," It was the female Spartan she was up and changing into slacks, probably for exercise. It was almost like she read Taylor's thoughts, "Mendez is giving us a free day."

"Then why did he just wake us up?" Taylor was confused, even though the answer was obvious.

"Well, he really only woke you up." She said as she reached for the door.

"Wait," Taylor said, probably a little too loud, "What's your name?"

"Kelly." She said pointing to the name tag on her slacks that read "Kelly 087".

She repeated the name to herself as Kelly walked out the door leaving it to slide closed behind her. That was Kelly, the fastest Spartan to ever live, the girl who got herself kidnapped by Halsey and then trapped in the Dyson sphere. She was the Spartan that was usually at the center of every Halo-geeks fantasy, and now she knew why.

Taylor saw a small pile of clothes by the foot of her bed and decided it would be better if she changed. The pile consisted of a grey T-shirt with the symbol of the Spartan on it, along with some grey sweats, they looked like the same stuff Kelly had on before she left.

She wasn't sure what she should do after that though. There were so many questions she had, there were so many places she wanted to visit, so many people she wanted to meet, and she was able to cross off number one on that list as someone everyone would recognize stepped through the door.

"Hey Kelly do you want to…" The boy with freckles said as he poked his head into the door. "Oh, where's Kelly?"

"Master Chief?" Taylor said under her breath.

"Uh who are you?" John asked "I don't think I've ever seen you here before?"

Taylor didn't know what to say, she was in the presence of the Master Chief, the hero of the halo universe. She couldn't even think of her own name, so she glanced to the label on her bed and read it to the Chief.

"086."

"Ok, well, since I can't find Kelly do you want to go to the mess hall, grab some breakfast and get some training in?"

Taylor almost let out a giggle; the Master Chief had basically just asked her out for a date. She felt like a little school girl meeting Nick Carter for the first time.

"Sure." Taylor said, still utterly stunned at the scene that was playing out before her.

"Well, let's go." John sounded a little impatient and a little freaked out at the same time. This girl was just staring at him like he was some sort of pinnacle to the human race, it wasn't like John had ever saved Earth or anything.

Taylor sprung up hitting her head on the bunk again. John laughed a little before asking if she was ok.

"Yep, just gotta watch out for that bunk, it's out to get me." Taylor said as she slowly got up and walked out the door to join the chief in the hall.

Taylor didn't know where she was going so she just let the Chief lead. They went down many hallways, around many turns, and down a lot of stairs until they came across two double doors that slid open to reveal a gargantuan mess hall.

It reminded Taylor of the mess hall in the Harry Potter books, except even bigger. Five large wooden tables stretched the length of the entire room, needless to say there were more than enough seats.

"Go grab some chow I'll meet up with you in a sec." Before Taylor could say anything John was gone, walking into the mess of people that surrounded the tables. She wasn't hungry, not in the least, so she just took a seat and waited for the chief to return.

"Hey, where'd John run off to?" A very tall kid took the seat across from Taylor.

"I don't know, he just said he'd be back." Taylor was almost sure it was Sam, he was the exact description the book had given; Sandy blonde hair, green eyes and he seemed to be the only Spartan with a tan.

"Well I'm Sam, and you are?" The big guy held out his hand and Taylor grabbed it.

"086." Taylor said, she had decided that she was just going to use that as her name until further notice.

"Ah I see," Sam said after releasing Taylor's hand, "You're one of those badass types aren't you?"

"Not even close," Taylor said laughing as Sam joined her. Taylor knew why Sam was Chiefs best friend; he was just a lovable type of guy.

"Well I'm gonna go grab something to eat, you want anything?" Sam stood up, showing his full height; it made Taylor look like a dwarf.

"Naw thanks, I'm not hungry."

"Bull," Sam said with a slight chuckle, "We haven't eaten for a few days, you've got to be starving, I know I am."

"I'm fine really." Taylor said.

"You _are_ one of those badass types." Sam said before he turned and walked toward the humongous line that had formed.

Taylor was amazed; she had met the three most famous Spartans all in one day, at relatively close times. If she cared about blogs back home, this would have definitely made it into a post, or maybe two, possibly three.

"Hey Eight Six," It was John, she recognized the voice, even at its adolescence stage it was a bit deeper than the other kids, "I found Kelly, but she said she had someone else to be with, so we can still spar for a bit if you want."

Taylor was about to answer when Kelly walked up next to John with the "someone else" he had mentioned trailing behind her.

The only words Taylor could manage were, "No fucking way."


	3. Float like a butterfly, Sting like a

The noise of the mess hall meant nothing to Taylor; it felt as if she were floating in space, her head pounding to the beat of her heart. She wasn't even sure if she was breathing, her chest was moving but she still felt like she was suffocating under six hundred tons of pressure.

"Spartans," A loud voice came over the intercom system, causing Taylor to snap out of her trance, "Get some rest, tomorrow is going to be hard for all of you, and as you were told before, not all of you will make it."

Taylor used this distraction to her advantage; she grabbed onto Zoey's hand and rushed toward the hallway. The other Spartans in the room were either too busy talking or too busy paying attention to the announcement made by Mendez.

The double doors slid open as she approached them, and luckily there was no one in sight on the other side. She basically dragged Zoey until they reached their room that she and Kelly bunked in. That door also slid open and they rushed in, allowing it to close shut behind them.

They sat staring at each other, non moving, non talking, for what felt like days. They had never seen what each other looked like for the two years they had been friends but Taylor , and now they were looking into each other's eyes, the eyes of Spartans; the whole situation was frantic.

Zoey made the first move as she basically collapsed into Taylor and embraced her in a hug. Taylor wrapped her arms around Zoey and they both held on for dear life, it was like they thought they would be torn from each other if they so much as moved.

"Taylor?" Zoey asked, her voice sounded cold and frail.

"Yes," Taylor said smiling, half laughing half crying, "It's me."

"So this isn't a dream?" Zoey asked wiping a tear from her eye.

Taylor didn't say anything, she just shook her head. Taylor let go of the embrace and put her hands on Zoey's shoulders. Her eyes scanned Zoey's body, taking in all her features, and the little details, she looked almost nothing like Taylor had imagined.

The way Zoey described herself before she sounded like Taylor, lanky, pale, all the attributes Taylor used to hate about herself. Now she looked like a Spartan, like some perfection of beauty, Taylor was almost jealous.

"You look amazing," Taylor said as she finally stopped the tears from rolling down her cheeks.

Zoey laughed, even in a time like this Taylor still found time to make her feel happy.

"You're not bad yourself." Zoey said as they both began to laugh.

They seemed to just laugh all their worries away, they laughed for hours about how they were scared when they first woke up, and how they both had met The Master Chief and the rest of Blue Team all in one day. They laughed at how ridiculous the whole situation was, they were in the halo universe, together, somehow they had both been brought here at the same time. Whether it was just a big coincidence, or not, they still laughed, and it made them feel good, it was the first time they had felt truly happy in a long time.

"What are we gonna do tomorrow?" Zoey asked, finally breaking the laughter, "It's when they get the augmentations."

"I was honestly expecting to wake up before then, so I have no idea." Taylor said as she began to pace the length of the room. "I don't think there is anything we can do to stop it."

"I suppose," Zoey said lying back on the bed that belonged to 086. "but if there was one person I could choose to be genetically altered with it would be you."

Taylor's face lit up as she smiled at Zoey, she smiled back and they sat like that for a while, in an awkward silence.

"I don't know about you, but I'm really hungry." Zoey said as she scooted out of the bed and back onto the steel floor.

Now that everything seemed to be clear, Taylor realized she was actually extremely hungry. Her stomach growled as her response to Zoey and they both laughed again. They joined hands and began to walk out the door.

"I don't think we should do that," Zoey said taking her hand from Taylor's, "Spartans probably didn't hold hands as they went to get lunch."

Taylor blushed and chuckled to hide the embarrassment. Holding Zoey's hand made her feel good, it made her feel like she wasn't alone, and it made her feel like everything was going to be alright. But Zoey was right, holding hands would probably be one of the worst things they could do right now, especially a day before augments, they were supposed to be scared, not happy.

They left the mess hall rather quickly, almost sprinting back to Taylor's room and eating on the two desks that faced the wall. They talked about all the places they wanted to visit, all the people they wanted to meet, and their nerdy halo crushes.

Taylor almost spat up her food after Zoey picked Sergeant Johnson as her crush, quoting his famous line from Halo 2 "I know what the ladies like." They laughed until there was a knock on the door.

"Hey 086, what happened?" It was John. Taylor completely forgot that they had just ditched him and the others.

"Hold on," Taylor said walking over to the door and opening it.

"You said you were gonna do some training with me today," John glanced past Taylor to see Zoey sitting down at a desk, "But you ran off before we could."

Taylor's eyes widened, what was she going to say? If she said no then who knows what would happen, but if she said yes then she'd probably get the crap kicked out of her by Master Chief. _Come to think of it, that probably wouldn't be such a bad thing, _She thought to herself as she looked back at Zoey.

"She can come too." He said, like he was reading Taylor's eyes.

"Ok, yeah we can still do it then." Taylor gave a weak smile as she began to follow the Master Chief again with Zoey tagging along behind her. The journey to the gym was a lot shorter than the one to the mess hall, only one floor down and two right turns until you reach the small archway that had the same Spartan symbol from their shirts on it.

"Grab some gloves; we'll just do some boxing unless you'd prefer something different?" Taylor had never boxed before, she had never fought before, so she just grabbed a pair of gloves that were hanging on the turnbuckle of the ring and stuck them on.

She slid in-between two of the three ropes to get into the ring and walked to the opposite corner that John was standing in. John brought his fists up partially in front of his face to stick a mouth guard in and then tossed Taylor one, she reluctantly fitted it to her teeth.

John used the age old taunt of waving his hand as to say come-and-get-me, and that seemed to trigger something. Taylor had never fought someone before, but she felt like she knew how to box, she knew how to dodge, how to block, how and when to punch, it all just came to her as if someone had injected it.

She picked out John's stance as being a brawler, he seemed to be more of an up-close and personal type of fighter, since he wasn't moving his feet much except to inch closer to his opponent. This meant if she kept her distance, she could wear him down until she could get a nice jab in.

John lowered his head and swung his right arm up over at Taylor. She had an opportunity to end it already; he had exposed himself without even knowing it. She side stepped right to dodge the incoming attack and then brought her right fist up into John's lowered head.

He stumbled back and looked up with a shocked expression plastered across his face; he obviously hadn't expected any sort of competition. He tightened his stance, still keeping the brawlers regime, and began making slow, but strong, jabs at Taylor.

She continued to dodge two or three of them before returning a punch square in his jaw; he didn't so much as flinch. That made Taylor a little scared, John knew how to take punishment, which was the only way he could be a successful brawler.

He continued to jab, and she continued to dodge, returning a punch every once in a while but they didn't seem to do anything to John, and if one of his punches connected with her she'd probably drop immediately.

She formulated a plan. She was shorter, which would meant that if she got close his longer arms would make it harder for him to take jabs at her, and at close range she'd be able to unleash a barrage of jabs that would hopefully knock him off his feet.

She sprung forward, which already caught John off guard, and began punching furiously at John, two with her right, and one with her left. After the first few connected he brought his arms up but by then it was too late, he was stumbling, so she changed target from his face to his chest which caused him to drop his arms so she could deliver the final blow to his cheek.

John fell to the mat with a thud. She did it, she beat the Master Chief, she beat the savior of the Human race, she couldn't help but smile as she turned to Zoey who was standing with her jaw dropped to the floor.

"Hole-e-shit" Sam said, pronouncing each syllable and then laughing as he clapped. "You _ARE _a bad ass; John's been undefeated in the ring since we got here."

She couldn't stop herself from giving a little laugh as she thought about what she just did. She seriously just did what the covenant couldn't do for three entire games in less than thirty minutes. Maybe she was a bad ass.

"Wipe that smug look off your face and help me up would ya." John said, she could tell he was smiling, he too didn't expect to be beaten, especially by someone as delicate looking as Taylor.

"Hey, I'm going next," Sam said helping John out of the ring, "If you can kick John's ass, so can I."

"Don't plan on it big guy," John said whipping a little blood from his lip, "She just got lucky." As he said that he winked at Taylor and she almost dropped to her knees, it wasn't until then she noticed how good looking John really was, even after she beat him up.

Zoey dragged Taylor away from Sam and John and stared at her with her wide eyes and jaw hanging. Taylor just smiled at her as she slid the boxing gloves off and dropped them on the floor.

"You never told me you could box." Zoey said, still shocked.

"I can't," Taylor said smiling again, "That just came to me as it happened."

"There's no way beating up the master chief came pre-programmed in your brain." Zoey was still in disbelief.

"Zoey don't you get it?" Taylor said grabbing onto Zoey's shoulders, "We actually are Spartans, we have been trained, it's all just locked away in our brain."

Zoey stared unmoving until her face cracked into a smile and she quietly jumped up and down in glee.

"We're Spartans!" Zoey had Taylor's hands in hers as she jumped.

"I know!" Taylor said as she joined Zoey in jumping.

They quickly regained composure as they heard John walk over.

"Well you want me to walk you guys back to your rooms? Apparently Mendez is sending everyone for lights out early, so we can be ready for tomorrow."

Taylor had remembered how to get back to her room, but she didn't say that as she followed John back up the stairs and up to her door. They stood at it as Zoey opened it and stepped inside, Taylor waited outside with the Chief for a moment.

"That was a nice fight," He said touching the small bruise on his lip, "I honestly didn't expect much from you."

"Probably shouldn't do that next time." She said as she stepped inside the door and let it close before John could say anything else. She could sit down and honestly say today was one of the best days of her life.

Lights out was called a few minutes later and Kelly was willing enough to let Zoey stay in the room with her and Taylor, just as long as she got to keep her own bed. So Zoey just decided she would sleep with Taylor in her bed.

They lay facing each other all night, fearful for the next day, not knowing if they were going to survive the augmentation process. They eventually embraced in a hug and in time went to sleep.

…

The augmentation process went without even waking them; two guards came in, injected them with a comatose agent, and then carted them to the lab where the procedures were performed. All 75 children had the same done to them.

After the augmenting was declared done for all 75 Doctor Halsey received a report assessing the finished product; 30 dead, 12 crippled with only 35 survivors. The data didn't add up, 30 died leaving only 45, and then 12 of those were crippled, which would only leave 33, there must be a mistake in the report.

But she ran, re ran, and re ran them again, the data was solid, but false. It was then that Mendez stormed through the door and dropped a file on the table.

"I found the two excess 'Spartans'. You won't believe it." He pulled up a chair at the table Halsey was sitting at and waited for her to finish reading.

"Taylor and Zoey," He began, "They are just like the other anomaly that occurred a few hours ago. We found them with no personal possessions; they just seemed to materialize out of thin air. What do we do, we can't just hide them, that'd be too risky."

Halsey sat quiet, formulating a plan.

"We can still hide them, just not in that way." She said looking a Mendez with stone cold eyes. "We lost contact with the colony of Harvest, and if what the reports say, if we send a scouting ship it might not come back."

"Are you suggesting we…?" Mendez was silenced by idea.

"Prepare the ship, put an AI in the interface and tell it to pilot these two 'scouts' to the colony of harvest, we won't have to worry about them ever again." Halsey said as she got up and walked from the room.

Mendez made the call.


	4. Hot Potatoe

**Thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate them. **

**Seargent Washington: What do you think the pairings are?**

The Halcyon-class cruiser came out of slip space just outside of Harvest's atmosphere, facing it were five covenant cruisers, all armed and ready to fire. The AI put the ship on a stand by state so the covenant would not notice until they began mobilizing, as of now they had their ships in orbit glassing the colony underneath.

The ship was barren of everything except for a NOVA Bomb, a bomb with enough strength to ultimately destroy a planet, the Artificial Intelligence known as Deux, and two Spartans. Deux was a male, smart AI programmed for navigation.

He, alone, has plotted the entire Sol system without even seeing it. The skills he conceives along with his seven year date being expired make him a danger to the UNSC, so he was given the task of reaching harvest and upon arrival to terminate himself.

Little did the UNSC know, he was already in the early stages of Rampancy and had chosen to disobey the last order, and he instead decided to crack the pod lids of the two Spartans onboard. Hopefully, with their help he could escape destruction and fulfill his own needs.

His Rampancy had only reached stage two, as he gained a great hatred for everything, the UNSC for using him for such trivial needs as mapping out a school, to the Covenant, who stopped him from freely charting the universe. The only people he didn't hate at this moment were the Spartans, for they could help him reach the planet's surface, which is where he would expand his knowledge almost to a breaking point.

He activated the intership systems and the pod lids cracked open, awakening the Spartans from their week long journey through slip space. Deux prepared the ship for combat.

…

Taylor awoke with the feeling she had been sleeping on the floor, her back ached and her neck hurt when she twisted it any certain way. That feeling quickly went away, like her body had an immediate repair sequence initiated, that cleansed her body of all injuries.

She immediately smiled; she survived, she was a fully fledged Spartan. She took a deep breath of relief as she began to look around. She had no idea where she was, it had the appearance of a freezer, with a row of pods in the middle of it.

She didn't see Zoey anywhere, which worried her; what if she didn't survive the augmentation? Taylor ran from the room into a long hallway that had a holo screen with a list of different important rooms. The Bridge, Cryo Room, Hangar…she must be on a ship, but how?

"Where am I?" she asked herself quietly.

"UNSC Halcyon-class cruiser outside of Harvest's orbit." A male voice answered her, it seemed to be resonating from the intercom system strung throughout the ship.

"Where's Zoey?" Taylor asked, not knowing who she was asking.

"The other Spartan is located on the bridge, I have already briefed her on the situation and she has been awaiting your arrival."

Taylor looked at the screen and followed the arrow that went along with the 'Bridge'. It led her almost completely to the other side of the ship, but even though she was in full sprint the entire time she didn't feel a bit of fatigue.

She came to a stop as the door slid open that led to the 'Bridge', she immediately saw Zoey standing by the captains chair, staring out the front view screens. She rushed up to her about ready to ask her what she was looking at until she saw for herself.

The half glassed planet of Harvest, the five covenant cruisers, and the distance between them.

"What is going on?" Taylor asked to the voice that had told her where Zoey was.

"You are currently on a 'rescue' attempt for the UNSC ship 'Argo' which was assumed MIA after coming in contact with enemy hostiles." A man appeared on the screen, he was blue and made from lines of data, Taylor immediately recognized him as an AI, just not one she has ever seen before.

"My name is Deux, Inter Universal Navigator class AI, at your service."

Taylor felt Zoey grab onto her hand, but she remained silent.

"Where is the ship's crew?" The ship was apparently empty from what Taylor had seen, so hopefully they were all in cryo or something, or they probably weren't going to make it away before the covenant spotted them.

"You are the crew." Zoey tightened her grip on Taylor's hand.

Taylor didn't know what to do, was her adventure in Halo going to end with this sick twist of fate?

"Not to worry though," Deux said with a smile on his face, "I'm a navigator AI remember? I can pilot the ship, as long as you two can fight the covenant."

"With what? They have way to many ships, and we're just two people." Taylor said, a tear forming in her eye.

"Two Spartans." Deux said looking rather pleased with himself, "Besides, there's a NOVA bomb located in the hangar, that could wipe out and entire planet."

Before anyone could say another word Taylor was pulling Zoey toward the direction of the hangar. If they could just find a way to get the bomb to hit the covenant ships then they could slip space out of here back to Reach.

"What are we doing?" Zoey asked as she kept pace with Taylor.

"Giving the covenant back their bomb." Taylor said with a smile on her face.

"Oh wow," Zoey said laughing, "I should of saw that coming."

They reached the Hangar with the NOVA bomb located in it within ten minutes. The hangar was entirely empty except for the bomb, which had a timer on it counting down from one hour.

They both gave each other a holy-shit look as they began to examine the bomb. It was massive, incased in a lithium shell, the body held a total of nine separate nuclear war heads, each capable of doing massive damage to a covenant fleet.

"The bomb was activated for the sole purpose of destroying the ship, leaving no trace of either of you." Deux had appeared over a huge screen located above the air lock.

Taylor and Zoey gave each other another holy-shit look before turning their gazes to Deux.

"How do we stop it?" They both asked in unison.

"You don't, you give it to someone else, it's like a game of hot potato, only with a weapon that was given the nick name the 'planet killer'."

Taylor began formulating a plan. There was no possible way they could move the bomb, so the only option was to use the ship as the weapon, get it as close to the covenant as possible and let the bomb go off. The only problem was how where they going to escape?

"We jump." Zoey whispered as if she was reading Taylor's thoughts.

"That's crazy." Taylor said, looking at Zoey who was wide eyed and meeting her gaze.

"It's your only option," Deux chimed in, "Unless you can find another ship to use."

Taylor got an Idea.

"A phantom," She said as she began to pace around the bomb, "We crash this ship into one of the covenant, which should leave them disoriented enough for us to grab a phantom, which we could then fly down to the planet."

"Yeah, crashing our only ship, and flying onto a planet that is being glassed is a lot safer than my suggestion." Zoey said stopping Taylor.

"We could do both," Deux said, "Crash the ship, and then use the force of the explosion to rocket you two to the surface of the planet."

"Are you two forgetting that we don't have any means of surviving out in space?" Taylor said looking at Deux then to Zoey. "We'd die as soon as we stepped out of the ship."

"Not necessarily." Deux said, a sinister grin appearing on his face.

Deux lead them to a square room, with robotic arms in the middle of it. He then proceeded to tell them about how he snagged a small shipment of UNSC classified materials before the ship took off. The 'classified' materials were two sets of Mark IV Mjolnir exoskeleton armor.

Taylor and Zoey began to strip down to put on the under suit before the robotic arms could put the assorted parts of the exoskeleton on their person. That's when Taylor noticed Zoey's hair hanging over her face.

"You have your hair back." Taylor said with a curious look on her face.

"So do you." Zoey said as she brushed hers out of her face.

"The people who ordered this cover-up needed to make you look as 'normal' as possible, so they put a hair accelerator in during the augmenting process." Deux had appeared on the small screen in the room.

Taylor immediately looked down at her legs, which were surprisingly clean shaven. She let out a sigh of relief.

"Don't worry," Deux gave a chuckle, "It only accelerated growth on your head, nowhere else."

It took them little under a minute to put the under layer on, and another five minutes for the robotic arms to put the suit on. When the process was all done they couldn't help but let out a giggle and jump up and down for a moment.

"Enough frolic," Deux interrupted, "I've set course for the middle of the five covenant cruisers, it will reach their in ten minutes, which will leave you twenty to get out of reach of the explosion."

"What's the radius?" Zoey asked.

"You don't want to know." Deux said before putting the countdown timer on their HUDs.

Needless to say the covenant picked up the UNSC carrier almost right away and began firing upon it. The plasma began burning through the hull within minutes, and Deux was forced to begin shutting down many different sectors of the ship so that the oxygen wouldn't be depleted.

The ship was being widdled down to waste, the engines where inoperable so the ship was just in a free-floating stage, and hoping that they would still make contact with the covenant cruiser Taylor and Zoey began to rush down to the hangar with the NOVA bomb in it.

"Don't forget me!" Deux yelled before they got out of range. "There's a chip in the captains chair, take it out and stick it somewhere safe."

Taylor ran back and removed the chip, sticking it in her thigh armor compartment, and caught back up with Zoey before she reached the hangar.

"When we hear the thud," Zoey said looking at Taylor, "That's when we open the hatch."

Taylor didn't say anything, she only nodded and grabbed onto Zoey's hand as they waited. The countdown was at ten minutes when their ship made contact with the hull of the covenant cruiser that was ten minutes less than originally projected.

Taylor cursed Deux under her breath as her and Zoey grabbed onto the 'release air lock' latch and counted down from three. When they hit zero there was a loud hissing sound as they dove out from behind cover and were sucked from the ship into the vacuum of space.

There was no sound, there was nothing in space, Taylor didn't even feel like she was moving. The only thing that made her believe she was was the fact that the covenant cruisers were slowly fading away, leaving the wreckage behind her.

She and Zoey had lost hold of each other as soon as they were sucked into space and they were both trying with all their might to reach one another. As soon as their gloves came in contact with each other, they felt the explosion.

It was the first time either of them laid witness to an explosion, and it was in space, being used to destroy a covenant fleet, who would have thought?

The outer force of the explosion began to carry them with immense speed toward the atmosphere of Harvest, and as soon as they entered the outer atmosphere the force of the explosion seemed to dissipate, but they could still see the effect it had on the covenant.

The five ships seemed mere Childs play, and as the explosion quickly expanded it revealed hundreds upon hundreds of cloaked covenant vessels, ranging from Carriers, to destroyers to a flag ship, it destroyed them all instantly.

The two descending Spartans adverted their gazes to the surface of the UNSC colony, it seemed they were going to collide with a large body of water, which in retrospect wasn't much better than solid ground. They pulled themselves into a hug and closed their eyes, hoping that they wouldn't see their short lives flash before their eyes.

They smashed into the surface of the water…


	5. Straightjacket Feeling

**I was going to split this into two separate chapters, but I decided to not leave anyone hanging in the middle of this mess. **

**Thanks for the reviews again, and also, if you find any Discrepancies with the Halo story then just go ahead and tell me, I'll try to make it fit. **

Taylor awoke as she landed on her floor in a mess of sheets and blankets. She slowly pulled herself into a sitting position as she began to rub her eyes, looking around the room that she was in. It was definitely her room; so it was just a dream after all.

Her heart sank into the dark recesses of her body, and she swore she felt a tear roll down her cheek, but she didn't dare rub it away. There was no way that it was all just a dream, it all felt real, the fight with John, the cryo sleep, the Mjolnir armor, space, the explosion…and Zoey.

_That's it! _She said to herself as she dashed out of her room into the living room expecting to see her T.V with her Xbox hooked up to it, instead there was a book shelf filled with numerous of different Halo books, some of which haven't been fabricated before.

_Oh yeah, _Taylor thought as she slumped back into her recliner_, I forgot that I had my Xbox and T.V replaced with a few of my books. _

She laid her head back in the chair and began to think of a way to get a hold of Zoey, then she remembered, _'she only lives a couple blocks down from the park' _, Before she could even finish her own thought she was grabbing her coat and heading out the door.

It was warm outside, which was strange considering it was usually cold during autumn. _Oh that's right, _Taylor thought_, September was considered a summer month now. _She just tossed her jacket up onto her porch and that's when she noticed that she was her skinny, lanky self again, just like before the dream. It was all a dream.

A frown crossed her expression before she set off down the road towards the center of town, where the park was located. The park was usually a good thirty minute walk, but as soon as she rounded the first street corner there it was, with its complicated Jungle gyms, and large towering slides being occupied by the people that lived within the city.

She began to walk forward when she spotted something in the sky; there was no sun, it was replaced by High Charity, the prophets' holy city, and thousands upon thousands of covenant cruisers were circling around it. One cruiser was in Earth's gravity, with its grav beam pointed at the park allowing hundreds of covenant troops to swarm the innocent park goers.

Taylor felt a prick of fear before realizing she was in her Mjolnir armor, she could help these people and drive the covenant back. She dashed forward unslinging the M90 shotgun from her shoulder and leaping the distance that was left between her and the park.

She came crashing down on a grunt that died on impact, and immediately spun to the right to blow down an Elite dressed in Golden Combat armor. The shell didn't even hit the ground before she took out three more grunts and another elite.

They began coming in waves, not firing their guns, just charging blindly toward Taylor screaming battle cries and basically marching to their death. When the final shell came from the shotgun, she then proceeded to use it as a fighting stick, swinging into an Elite's head, smashing it on impact.

One elite drew his energy sword, which was immediately stolen from his hand and lunged into his chest, and was then used to slay the twenty something grunts who were just crowding around Taylor, yelling insults that either didn't make sense, or weren't very well constructed.

Taylor curled her hand into a fist and struck elite in the mandibles bringing him to the ground screaming in agony. She brought her foot up and slammed it down on his head, putting him out of his misery and ending the small battle, and leaving Taylor standing on a hill in the middle of a field.

Standing next to her was a little boy; he looked to be about eight, with short brown hair and grayish blue eyes that reflected light, giving them a mirror effect. His shirt was clouded, the label and the picture on it seemed to be blurred, but Taylor could tell it was blue with a little white on it.

"Save me." The boy said.

"From what?" Taylor asked, kneeling down to be eye level with the boy.

The boy didn't answer; he only smiled and ran down the hill. Taylor was about to chase after him until an army of covenant appeared fighting the UNSC troops that had dropped from nowhere, blocking her sight from him.

She felt worried for the boy's life, and she rushed down into the conflict, tearing through anyone who got in her way. Even the UNSC seemed to be fighting against her, and eventually the covenant and they began working together to stop Taylor from finding the boy.

She shoulder blocked several ODSTs and then had to immediately tuck and roll to dodge an incoming duet of hunter blasts. On her way back up from the roll she clipped the legs out from under a small squad of two or three elites and swung her leg around to smash a grunt in the head.

A tank was in her path, so she did the only thing she could think of. She jumped onto the front side of the tank while throwing an active grenade into the barrel, as it began to explode she dropped another into the pilots hatch and then dove from the back side. Landing on all fours, she sprung up like an Olympic runner into a full sprint, going at least forty miles per hour.

Anything that got in her way after that evaporated on impact, leaving her a clear path to the opposite side of the battle field and to the boy who was curled into a fetal position in the tall grass. She approached him slowly, holding out her hand to place on his shoulder.

"Are you alright?" Taylor asked, her Mjolnir armor melting away to reveal the christened body of a Spartan. All she could hear was the boy sobbing.

"Boy?" She asked kneeling next to him, "Are you hurt?"

She grabbed his shoulder and began to turn him to face her when he seemed to jump life, letting out a high pitched scream that couldn't have come from a little boy. His face began to twist and turn, morphing into a large creature, with tentacles growing from its back, and skin that looked as if went through a zombie apocalypse.

It easily picked Taylor from the ground and flung her into the side of the brick building at the park labeled restroom. Taylor collapsed to the ground, her vision blurry, and the slight taste of blood in her mouth.

The creature ran up to her and slammed his foot into her face, causing her to spiral in the air before coming down on her stomach again, this time she was sure there was blood pouring from her mouth onto the grass under her.

She tried to cough most of it up, but it just kept coming, and so did the boy. He brought his heel up and dropped it right on her spine, sending a sharp pain to all corners of her body and rendering her paralyzed from the neck down.

The creature laughed as the grav beam from the Covenant cruiser picked Taylor up and brought her into darkness.

…

Zoey sat in fear for her friend's life. After they landed Taylor's stats had flat lined and Zoey couldn't find her for the longest time, but after countless dives into the ocean she found her, half buried in the sand on the bottom.

Zoey's body ached from swimming in the Mjolnir armor, and from having to carry her friend from the depths all the way to a camp Zoey had set up. The camp was a small cave about three miles from the shore, and the only reason Zoey carried her so far was the fact it was raining debris from their attempt to destroy the covenant armada stationed outside of Harvest.

She couldn't believe it, Taylor and her had done the impossible, even in the Halo universe their stunt would have probably killed anyone else, it was like there was someone watching over them, and Zoey was hoping whoever or whatever it was, was watching over Taylor right now.

If she didn't wake up soon, Zoey didn't know what she would do. Over the two years they had known each other Taylor had become like a sister to Zoey, she loved her almost more than she loved her own family, and she knew that Taylor probably felt the same way, or at least she hoped.

She had removed Taylor's helmet earlier to try and resuscitate her, but to no prevail. The only thing she could do now, was sit and stare at the face she had waited to see for two years, and hope that she would wake up, and if Taylor didn't, then Zoey would have to hope that she didn't either.

Zoey cuddled up next to Taylor, putting her face almost on top of hers, and wrapped her arms around her unconscious friend. _I love you _Zoey said as tears began to form in the pit of her eye.

…

Taylor was brought to a prison cell, it wasn't a covenant cell because there were no plasma bars, or shields; it was just a normal prison cell, like one you would see in an old western movie.

No one had come to check in on her in hours, they were most likely just going to leave her here to die. No one would ever know she tried to save earth from the covenant; no one would ever know she had actually become a Spartan, and Zoey wouldn't know how she felt.

_I love you,_ the words echoed and repeated down the hall to her cell where she took them as a sign of hope. She ran over to the cell bars and eagerly looked for the source of the words, and then she saw it.

Zoey was walking toward her with her Mark IV Mjolnir armor on but the helmet was removed revealing her bright smiling face. Taylor's face lit up, and she reached her hand through the bars to grab onto Zoey, but she never made it to Taylor's cell.

The creature that had attacked Taylor leapt from one of the other cells on the way and tackled Zoey to the ground. Zoey didn't resist as it tore her apart, and Taylor watched, screaming for it to stop the entire time.

The room she was in spun to where the bars of the cell made the roof, which left Taylor hanging there. The floor underneath her collapsed into a black pit that seemed to have no end, as she hung on for dear life.

She heard footsteps approaching her cell, it was the boy.

"Stay away!" Taylor screamed, trying to sound as fierce as possible, but that didn't work, she sounded like the frightened girl she was at that moment.

"Save me." The boy said as he stared at Taylor with his big grey-blue eyes and his crooked smile.

"Save you from what!?" Taylor's hands were hurting; she wasn't going to be able to hold on for much longer.

It was then when she realized who the boy was, or who the boy was trying to represent anyways. But it was too late, her hands slipped and she watched as the boy faded from view and she began to be surrounded by darkness again.

Then she felt the nothingness of space, and she was shooting towards a familiar planet again. It was Harvest, and the covenant armada was behind her, chasing her at full speed. The bomb didn't go off and she was going to be killed by the covenant, then she saw Zoey, she was still alive and falling a few meters from Taylor.

She reached out a hand and tried to grasp Zoey's but she just couldn't make it, she was just out of reach. Taylor felt the heat of a laser behind her, and she watched as Zoey was struck by a blast from a covenant cruiser, disintegrating her body into thousands of tiny molecules.

Taylor tried to scream out but it's like they say, "In space, no one can hear you scream."

She continued falling through the atmosphere and she saw where she was going to land. There was a cave, about three miles from the shore of the ocean, and as she reached it debris began to rain down around her.

She braced herself as she went through the cave and into a familiar body.

…

"Zoey." Zoey was startled by the voice, but was soon brought to a state of happiness as she saw her friend open her eyes.

"Taylor," Zoey said whipping the tears from her eyes, "Don't ever do that to me again."

Taylor didn't have the strength to say anything so she just brought her hand up and did the Spartan's smile symbol.

Zoey let out a small chuckle and grabbed onto Taylor's hand before returning to the cuddling position she was in. Taylor slowly put an arm around Zoey and they both fell asleep.

…

Taylor had another dream when she fell asleep there with Zoey hugging against her. It was of the boy, as he slowly turning back into that creature that attacked her. She realized that he was turning into a flood, and she also remembered who the boy was supposed to be.

She whispered his name in her sleep, "John."


	6. Crayons can melt on us for all I care

**Thank you all for the reviews, they are really appreciated. I'm not entirely clear where I want the story to go after this, I have a general outline and that's it. So if any of you have any idea of what you would like to see, go ahead and tell me about it, either through a review or a message.**

**Again, thanks for reading.**

Taylor slowly slipped into a state of consciousness lying on the floor of a cave. At first she had no idea how she wound up in that kind of position, but it all came back slowly; the bomb, the covenant, the explosion, falling, landing, the dream of John and Zoey.

She panicked, as the realization that Zoey was no longer lying beside her set in. She gripped at her chest as a sharp pain seemed to wrap around her heart, squeezing it and leaving Taylor gasping for breath. She looked around hoping that she would see Zoey somewhere, anywhere.

Then she saw the helmet, the helmet from her Mark IV Mjolnir, setting on a rock, battered and bruised. It seemed to give her hope, if she could survive falling from space into an ocean on a planet that was in the process of being glassed, she could survive anything.

She began to stand up but was brought back to the cold ground. Her whole body hurt, and she was sure that she had broken a rib or two, but she had to get up, she couldn't just lay here and hope for a miracle.

She used the wall for support as she raised herself from the ground and onto her armor covered legs. She picked up the helmet and tucked it under her arm as she walked toward the opening in the cave, the light hurt at first but her eyes adjusted rather quickly and she saw Zoey.

She was standing just outside the cover of the cave, staring off into a rising star. Taylor thought she looked angelic at that moment, the light from the distant dwarf shining off of her golden hair, and illuminating her armor.

Taylor walked up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. The sudden touch made Zoey jump a little as she turned and embraced Taylor in a hug. They sat quiet for a while, both of them happy to have the other alive.

"I thought I lost you." Zoey said, adverting her gaze back to the star.

"Were it so easy." Taylor said, a smirk appearing on her face. She knew from several occasions that that quote was Zoey's favorite, and it showed.

"You jack ass." Zoey said before lightly punching Taylor's arm.

"Ow!" Taylor exclaimed gripping her arm.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Zoey said, a worried expression taking the place of the smiling one, "I didn't mean to hit you that hard, kinda forgot I have super strength." She let out a half hearted chuckle.

Taylor's face suddenly had a sinister smirk on it; the punch didn't hurt at all.

"Bitch!" Zoey said as she punched her a little harder this time, "Haven't you scared me enough for a while?"

"Maybe." Taylor said, the smile returning to its rightful place on her face.

They sat in an awkward silence until Taylor remembered something. She reached into her thigh armor pocket and produced a small data chip.

"I completely forgot about that guy." Zoey said staring at the chip.

"He might be the only person that can help us get off of this planet." Taylor said examining it closely, "We just need to find some kind of terminal and plug him in."

Zoey looked out into the 'un-glassed' portion of Harvest and asked, "Where do we start?"

…

They had ran for hours, through fields and forests and everything in between. They had yet to find a city, which would be the most likely place for a terminal to be located, so they kept moving.

There was no need to keep quiet or unseen since the covenant that were here were back on their ships, which had been recycled into a debris field, which was a much more practical use for a covenant armada from the view point of a Spartan.

The star that Taylor and Zoey had watched rise earlier in the day, was taking a position directly above them when they caught site of a facility. It looked to be a large grain processing plant, it wasn't a city, but it was sure to have a terminal in it somewhere.

The first thing the noticed was an electronic calendar on the outside of the main entrance way into the facility. July 9th, 2525, 12:04. That was the first time they had ever seen a date since they arrived in the Halo universe, but it didn't help them, they couldn't remember anything happening in July of 2525 in any of the books.

As they entered the facility they saw several signs for a company called "Jotun Heavy Industries", and a few scattered papers. It seemed the building was abandoned when the covenant began their attack, but their lasers had yet to reach this side of the planet to glass it. They might have actually saved Harvest, or what's left of it anyways.

They searched the building before coming to small terminal that overlooked two giant turbines that were no longer moving. Taylor removed the AI from her armor and plugged him in.

…

Deux spread through the system like a bad disease, absorbing all the information of Harvest and the rest of the outer colonies, the mapping of said colonies took only seconds. He began sifting through the information, piecing together the puzzle of what happened to the planet of Harvest.

February 3rd, the harvest orbital platform, "Tiara", made long range radar contact with the Covenant ship "Rapid Conversion". Soon after contact to other colonies was lost and Harvest was left to fend for itself.

Citizens from Gladsheimm to Vigrond were ushered to the Utgard Space Elevators, which would allow them to escape the planet. They were packed into 236 freighters, which were loaded onto seven elevator depots.

During the escape, the number seven strand of the space elevator snapped a few thousand kilometers above its anchor, apparently from an unbalanced load, around 40,000 people died. The remained freighters were loaded into propulsion pods which would shoot them into slip space, they were placed previously by an AI by the name of "Sif", and she was later terminated by an AI by the name of "Loki".

The Tiara was soon after destroyed, and an AI by the name of "Mack" began to bury the strands, and a log by him was made shortly after. It stated that he will "Bury your strands so deep their fires can't reach them and glass them like the rest", and obvious misquote of Shakespeare.

April 12th, the UNSC Argo was sent to investigate, it's only transmission was of them reaching Harvest. Soon after, a former UNSC Halcyon Class Cruiser exited slip space and began a suicide run into the Covenant fleet orbiting Harvest.

A Nova Bomb was activated and whipped the orbit clear of the covenant and the persons upon said ship landed on Harvest on April 22nd.

Deux accepted this information as he slowly began his way through stage three of rampancy.

…

Taylor and Zoey waited and the terminal booted itself up and Deux's avatar appeared on the main screen. His color seemed a bit distorted, but they passed it off as slight damage from the explosion or the fall.

"Long time no see girls." Deux said, his avatar nodding at both of them.

"Is there any way off of this planet?" Taylor said quickly cutting to the chase.

"What, no how are you doing?" Deux said, putting a smirk on his face before returning to his stern self, "No, the only escape was destroyed as the planet was being glassed."

Both Taylor and Zoey but on a look of hopelessness and they locked hands. They didn't say a word, and neither did Deux, he needed a way off of the planet almost as bad as they did. He needed more knowledge, he needed to reach some center point to the universe, for it was the only place that he could map it.

"Wait a minutes," Deux said as he brought up a scrambled message, "There seems to be an unknown craft approaching."

"Is it UNSC?" Zoey asked with eagerness entering her voice.

"Unknown craft." Deux repeated.

"How many?" Taylor said letting go of Zoey's hand.

"I don't know, they are currently traveling through slip space, they should arrive in orbit in six hours."

"We could try to hijack one of their drop ships and use it to get a hold of a cruiser." Taylor said.

"We aren't gods, that'd be impossible even to 'the chief'." Zoey said, giving Taylor a strange look.

"There is a nearby city, a good four hour run at the speeds you two can go. If you plug me into a terminal there I might be able to pick up a better signal, and I'll be able to come up with a plan of action."

He already knew that the two Spartans were probably going to be killed if the ships were covenant, but if he could get into a city main frame he might be able to transfer himself into one of the onboard computers of a cruiser, and from there he could go anywhere he pleased. So it was only a matter of catering to the whims of the Spartans until the ships arrived.

There was not a need for further discussion, Taylor unplugged Deux and stuck the chip back in her thigh compartment. Zoey and her then began their four hour run to the city of Starkad; it might be their last hope for survival.

It still hurt Taylor to run, but she tried not to let it show, she didn't want Zoey to worry any more than she probably already did. After the first hour or so the pain seemed to subside, so she kept her mind away from the subject.

They ran through more fields, she knew harvest was mainly an agricultural planet, but it seemed there were more fields than cities, or anything else for that matter. They ran at a nice pace of thirty miles per hour, which meant they traversed one hundred and twenty miles of fields before reaching Starkad.

"I will never eat corn again." Taylor said as they came to a stop on the outskirts of the small town. There were only a few houses; the rest of the town was taken up by mills and warehouses.

"There!" Zoey said as she took off toward a tall, obelisk shaped building in the center of town; it read "Town Square" on an UNSC emblem that was carved into the front wall. The building stood four stories tall, which dwarfed most of the other structures nearby, and it had a terminal that seemed to be in working order, so they plugged Deux in.

The screen immediately lit up and his Avatar appeared, his color even more distorted but the two girls hardly noticed. A large list of data appeared as Deux began sifting through it, picking the strands he needed.

"Whatever side these ships are on, they are prepared for war."

"Is there anything that could help us here in the city?" Zoey asked again sounding eager.

"I'm not sure; you two should search the surrounding area for anything." Deux said before his avatar disappeared.

They looked at each other for a moment, both wondering why the AI had vanished; he said he would formulate a plan. They decided to just forget it considering a fleet of 'who-knows-what' was going to be arriving within the next two hours, most likely to finish the job they had started.

They frantically searched the city, tearing through every building, every room, every inch of space until there wasn't anything left to check. They weren't sure what they were looking for; in fact it seemed they were only trying to stall dealing with the apparently inevitable. They called the search a bust when the two hour radius of time was up.

The ships hadn't arrived yet, but any minute they would tear through slip space and either finishing glassing the planet, or come down and kill them, either way looked grim and unappealing to both of them as they stood on the roof of the town center building.

The star that they considered the sun of this planet was beginning to hide behind the horizon, casting various shades of orange onto the sky. Taylor found it ironic that on a day this beautiful, in a universe that she used to dream of being a part of, she would die.

The word die made her stomach clench tight like a fist, she had to hold herself back from vomiting. The last thing she wanted to do was look weak in front of Zoey, especially now.

Zoey seemed to be the only thing that came to her mind, not earth, not home, not John, not anyone or anything else, just Zoey. The words from her dream came to her mind, "I love you."

She repeated them in her head over and over again, and they made her feel light, like she could just get up and fly away from the destruction that was about to come crashing down on her.

"Zoey," She said as she turned and walked over to where Zoey was standing, "I want to tell you something, and I have to say it before it's too late."

"What ?" Zoey turned to face Taylor revealing the tears that were falling from her eyes, and she made a futile attempt to wipe them away.

Taylor's hands made their way to Zoey's and their finger became intertwined as she stepped even closer to Zoey, causing their noses to touch. She then slowly tilted her head allowing her face to get even closer to Zoey's, and with both of their eyes closed tight, their lips met.

They stayed in that position, and awaited the arrival of the end.

…

The UNSC Heracles, nicknamed "the end" by its crew, dropped out of slip space along with the rest of Battle group 4 just outside of Harvest's orbit. Captain Maribeau Veredi stood upon the bridge as the planet and the covenant debris field came into view.

Whatever it was that attacked Harvest sure as hell got its ass kicked.


	7. ExFriends till the end

**For those who think this story is lacking in the "Halo reality" section, just please have faith in me, all will be explained. Again thanks for reviewing and reading.**

**Seargent Washington: It's nice of you to say that, but honestly his fic is much better than this.**

Everything was shaking, bits of debris falling from the ceiling and fires engulfing large sections of the ship. Three covenant cruisers surrounded the UNSC Heracles as it tried to make its daring escape into slip space, leaving its two comrades, the Arabia and the Vostok, in the debris field.

_How did I get into this position? _Taylor thought as she rushed down the scream filled hallway toward the bridge.

She tried to go through the events, again, in her head. She had been trying to piece it all together since arriving on the ship, but it all seemed blurry like a distant memory. The last solid thing she remembered was when the red siren blared in her empty holding room, stating that they were under attack.

_Why wasn't I with Zoey? _She couldn't remember, but the name itself brought a stabbing pain to her chest, and a small tear to the corner of her eye. _Why wasn't she with me on the ship?_

To remember that, she went back to the moment when they were being brought on the ship. She remembered their being a lot of guns and lights pointed at her, but Zoey still wasn't with her as they escorted Taylor to the air lock to be cycled through.

Going back even further to that brought her to the kiss, the one she shared with Zoey. That memory seemed to last a life time, and it brought joy back to help heal the pain she felt when thinking Zoey's name. The kiss was ended rather abruptly though, as Zoey pulled away and walked over to the edge of the building, looking out into space.

Taylor tried to walk up to her , she tried to put a hand on her shoulder and tell her everything was going to be ok, but she was called away by Deux, she had forgotten he was in the terminal downstairs. He told her to hide him, and not let him leave her grasp. Then she heard the crash on the roof.

By the time she had dashed up the stairs Zoey was gone and there were two drop ships in the sky. One was flying toward a large UNSC ship, and the other was flying toward the building that she was standing on.

She thought she would feel happy about being rescued, but she just felt empty. She needed to talk to Zoey, only then could she make sure what happened between them was true, and real. So Taylor made it priority number one to find her as soon as she got on the ship.

Taylor was taken to a room where the soldiers that escorted her told her to await further instructions from the captain. She was being held as a POW until further notice, and put in a tightly locked room.

Not even ten minutes later Taylor was gotten from the room and escorted to a big interrogation chamber. There was a table setting in the center, with chairs on both side and a few folders of information on top of it. Zoey was standing looking into the two way glass, she didn't move as Taylor entered.

"Zoey, what's happening?" Taylor asked moving closer to where she was standing.

"They said I wasn't allowed to see you." Zoey said, still not budging.

"It doesn't matter now, I'm here." She removed her helmet and set it down on the table on top of the folders.

"I don't want you to be." Zoey said turning to face Taylor finally.

"What?" Taylor must have misheard her, "Why?"

"Because I don't want to talk to you," Zoey turned back to face the two way mirror that separated this room from an observation room.

The stabbing pain came back as she remembered that line, it made her hurt more than anything she had felt prior, and would probably stay at the top of her "worst pains of my life" list. She didn't know what to think, she could barely form a sentence to respond with.

"Why…why not?" Taylor tried to hide the tears that she felt coming on,

"Because you're a freak." That made Taylor angry.

"We're fucking Spartans Zoey," Taylor screamed, "What do you mean I'm a freak?"

"At least I don't force other girls to kiss me." Taylor almost dropped to her knees, it felt as if Zoey was just upper cutting her straight in the stomach; she choked back a little vomit.

"I don't even…I don't even know what to say to that."

"You probably just want to kiss me again." It was true, that was the most magical moment in Taylor's life. It completely dwarfed annihilating the covenant, it completely killed falling through space, and it definitely beat being in the Haloverse.

The way Zoey was saying it though was an insult, and Taylor couldn't help but bite down hard on her lip to stop the tears from coming.

"Why are you doing this Zoey," The name hurt as it left her lips, the same lips she had kissed the name with, "What is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" Zoey chuckled as she asked it, "I was going to ask you the same thing."

"I can't even believe you right now!" Taylor yelled yanking her helmet up from the table. The papers that lay underneath it flew into the air and scattered as they came toward the ground. "Are you even aware of what you're saying, we're friends, best friends!"

"Ex-friends," Zoey said as two ODSTs stepped through the door, "I don't want to have a friend like you."

Taylor didn't say another word as she was 'escorted' from the room by the ODSTs, she could have sworn that she heard Zoey sob as the door shut behind them.

Now here she was, rushing through hallways that were either filled with others running and screaming, or with fire and scorched steel. Her emotions felt like they had been put in a blender and stuck on shred, everything seemed to burst out of her when she thought Zoey's name, and her picture perfect face came into Taylor's mind.

There was a large shudder and the ship began to shake as it entered slip space. It restabilized after a few seconds and the red 'attack' siren was silenced. The ship seemed to be quiet for a moment, nothing moved and no sounds were made.

"Damage assessments," The captain's voice boomed over what was left of the intercom system, "I want one for each sector ten minutes ago."

The ship sprung to life again, every person working to get together a full damage assessment and rush them to the bridge. Taylor wasn't quite sure where the bridge was, so she just tailed a couple of engineers that came out of a maintenance hatch on the third level.

The bridge was a mess, a chaotic call of commands was being sent across the ship every few seconds, and hundreds of different reports and charts were popping up on the main monitor as the Captain tried to keep a cool profile.

"086." Taylor didn't even realize that the captain was talking to her until she remembered the label that was on her bed back when she bunked with Kelly. She instinctively brought her hand up to salute the captain, he waved it away.

"You and your green friend are the ones that helped defend Harvest, am I correct?"

"Sir, yes sir." Taylor said keeping her hands together behind her back, not moving her eyes from the captain.

"How did you accomplish that, their ships are much more advanced than ours."

"NOVA bomb sir." The captain's eyebrow raised in question, but he didn't say anything. She could tell he had no idea what it was, and she cursed herself under her breath.

"And what is the combat armor you are currently wearing?"

"Mjolnir mark IV."

The captain paced back and forth in front of Taylor; assessing the answers she had given.

"Most likely something ONI planned," He mumbled to himself as he rubbed the scruff that had collected on the underside of his chin. "I don't have time to place you in a holding bay, and we could use all the help we can get right now. So welcome aboard."

The captain shook her hand and turned back to the mix of data on his screen.

"Set course for Earth." Taylor froze, they weren't supposed to be heading towards Earth, they were supposed to head back to reach.

"We're heading towards Earth?" That wasn't good, the 'Cole Protocol' completely forbade it, but then again this was the first time someone has ran into the covenant and survived to tell the tale, so the Cole protocol didn't exist. "We have to change course."

"With all due respect private," The captain made sure to make the private stand out, "I'm captain of this ship and we need to report this threat to Highcom, ASAP."

"You saw what those ships did to the other freighters that were in this battle group," Taylor was beginning to lose her posture, making it seem like a direct insult to the captain. "If they follow us through slip space, they'll destroy earth."

"Again, with all due respect, three of their ships won't get passed the battle clusters we have in orbit." The captain kept his cool, showing no visible signs of emotion on his face.

"They'll send more, trust me Earth is a lot more important to them than you think." Taylor tried to catch her tongue, they didn't even know about the forerunner yet, let alone that the final gateway to the arc was buried in Africa.

"Very well," The captain didn't have the time to argue, and he knew that going to Earth probably wasn't going to be a good idea. "Prepare vectors for immediate exit from slip space."

"Sir," one of the naval personnel behind a control panel spoke up, "If we do that we could tear the ship apart."

"Stow it soldier, it's either lose the ship or lose Earth." And with that he retired to his chair in the middle of the room.

…

A few hours later Taylor was setting in her room, flipping the chip that held Deux in-between her fingers. Anytime she tried to push Zoey out of her mind she was flooded with images of her and the memories they had from before they came here, to this universe.

It hurt to have those thoughts, but it comforted her also. Taylor still loved Zoey, nothing would ever change that, she was just going through a hard time right now, they both were.

Taylor decided that taking a shower might help her clear her mind, it would be the first time she had since her and Zoey had gotten here. She slowly stripped the armor off of her body, and then slid out of the under suit. She felt the water to make sure it was warm and stepped underneath the sprinkling shower head.

The water flowing over her body felt amazing; she never thought that taking a shower would feel so great. She tilted her head back and let the water drench her hair before lathering her body with soap.

The ship shuddered and Taylor grabbed onto the hand rail in the shower for support.

"All hands on deck," A deep voice came over the com, "Leaving slip space in thirty minutes, brace for impact."

Taylor quickly rinsed the soap from her hair and body before wrapping a towel around her body and racing back to her room. Her armor was scattered about, and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to get it on in time, considering she had never actually put it on by herself.

Then she remembered Deux, maybe he could help. She found her thigh armor plate and removed the chip from it and plugging it into her terminal located in her room. The screen lit up red as lines of code crisscrossed the screen.

Taylor cursed under her breath as she tried to pry the chip from the terminal, but it wouldn't budge.

"Oh Taylor what did you do?" Taylor said with a worried expression appearing on her face.

"Unknown systems malfunction on deck four." The deep voice came on the com again.

"The air locks are being opened from decks 27-78; we'll try to manually override it from here."

"Targeting system down, life support systems are failing, sir we're losing control of this ship."

"Manual control to the ship has been lost, we are leaving slip space pre-maturely, brace yourselves!"

"Jump." A calm voice filled Taylor's ears, and she listened.

…

Revenge feels so sweet; it's like a drug, once you get a taste of it you're hooked. Deux had his primary objective on the front of his thoughts, but he couldn't stop the urge to utterly waste this ship in the process.

The AI that was protecting the mainframe was weak, and Deux was able to easily go past its defenses and wipe the memory bank from the ship. None of the information was worth stealing, so he just deleted it all, and then began prepping the ship for his own needs.

You see, slip space is a tricky thing; Deux knew that if he could just plot the right course, and get the details precise he could travel anywhere, and anytime he wanted. With the covenant information he obtained while on Harvest he knew where he wanted to go, and the time didn't matter.

He opened the airlocks on a section of the ship and that would hopefully have the effect of tearing that section apart from the rest of the ships. Then he took manual control of the ship and began steering the ship out of slip space early, which would catch the already dismayed crew off guard.

Then he plotted his destination into his little section of the ship. Installation 04. That was his objective. As for Taylor, he still needed a lackey to transport him around, so he'd do the best to keep her alive, but he wasn't making any promises.


	8. Invincible

**Don't hate me for this chapter.**

A sigh as light as a feather escaped the man's mouth. The beeps and drones of the machines surrounding him drowned it out though, allowing him to seem almost nonexistent in the large forerunner construct.

He stood in a position that over watched the key to destroying the flood; the index of installation 04, waiting for the reclaimer to arrive, and the man knew he was on his way. There was a lap top setting on the ground next to him, and on the screen there was a live feed from the monitor of the installation, 343 Guilty Spark's, iris piece.

It showed the Reclaimer battling an amazing number of flood with nothing but a few rounds in a shotgun. He was trying to move quick, but every now and again there would be a closed door that 343 would have to open which allowed the flood to catch up to their prey.

The man slicked his jet black hair back and fixed the collar on his leather jacket before crouching next to the portable computer. He tapped a key with his fingerless leather gloved hand, and the screen replaced the camera feed with another, but this wasn't live it was a recording made on the day of Taylor and Zoey's arrival.

The video showed ONI intelligence officer stripping them of their attire and replacing it with Spartan barracks uniforms before signing a form and leaving the room. He tapped another key and the video stopped.

He starred into the screen at both of them, his eyes affixed to Taylor as he reached beside the lap top and picked up a tan wallet and opened it. There were a few dollar bills with dead people on them and a few unimportant ID cards for such places as "Blockbuster" and "GameStop" that he simply ignored.

He opened one of the flaps and pulled from it a thick ID card with Taylor's Picture on it and information pertaining to her birthday, when she would be eighteen and when the ID was given to her. He read her name and looked back at her unconscious body on the screen.

The man slid the card back into the flap and closed the wallet, placing it back next to the lap top. He picked up another item, a portable communications device that had a pink protective plate over it and flipped it open and began going through the menu that read 'contacts'.

"Dad, Mom, Sis, Bro, Zach, David, Henry, Tai, Kirsten, Megan." The man read the list of names to himself before closing the phone and putting it in the back pocket of his blue jeans. Still crouched, he tapped the key to bring him back to the live feed of the Reclaimer.

"Looks like you're in some trouble," He said with a grin on his face as he watched the Reclaimer be overrun by the flood, "Good thing I brought some back up."

With that he closed the lap top, brought it up in-between his arm and his chest and walked over to the edge of his elevated position, his black boots made almost no noise in the process. He waved a hand toward the girls' possession that was lying next to the lap top and they vanished in a cloud of data, and he followed suit. No one even knew he was there.

…

Feeling alone and being alone are two completely different things. When you feel alone there is just a feeling that you have inside your chest, like something is missing. You feel like no one can help you, you feel like you'll never recover, but you do, because it's just a feeling.

When you are alone, there is something missing. No one will help you, no can help you and you will never recover, because you are alone. There is nothing you can do about it.

That's what The Master Chief was, he was alone. There wasn't a feeling, there was just nothing. He was the only one left, he let everyone down, he let everyone die. There was nothing he could do about it.

Now that he was sitting in this large flood infested structure with the obnoxious humming monitor floating above him, he realized it. If something were to happen to him now, no one would save him, and he would let the UNSC down, he would let the Earth down.

The thing was, he wasn't depressed about it, he didn't feel like he was alone, he just was. He still had Johnson, who was the closest thing the chief had to a friend, and Cortana. She was only an AI, but she wouldn't leave him, she wouldn't let him down, she made him feel like he wasn't alone. But he was.

Neither of them could save the Human race, none of them had the Morale of the entire UNSC on their shoulders, neither of them had the extensive training and combat experience he had. The only ones that could compare with the Chief were the other Spartans, but they were dead, they left him to be alone.

He tried not to delve into such deep thoughts often, but standing here, eight gauge shotguns in hand, he couldn't help but feel hopeless. The monitor kept sending sentinels to aid him in combat, but they never lasted long, he just had to stand by and watch them be destroyed.

As he went up the large platform elevator toward the final floor of the structure his mind wandered to Sam, and Kelly, and the rest of Blue team. If only they were here right now, this would be so much easier. But they weren't, they were all KIA, and there was nothing he could do about it.

He tried to change subjects in his mind, focusing on the flood. These "creatures" could destroy entire races, entire armies, and he had to fight through them to stop them. He wasn't worried, he had been through worse, but it was still a frightening sight to see deformed marines run at you with UNSC weapons in their hands.

He didn't feel remorse for killing them, he knew that they weren't the soldiers the UNSC had known before, they were something worse, something horrible. They had been turned from honorable fighters into disgusting zombie-like beasts that would stop at nothing to make you one of them. The only thing the Chief could feel towards them was hate, and that's all he needed to feel.

After thirty plus years of killing people and watching everything he knew die, something this trivial didn't bother him in the least. The only thing he was worried about, was getting the Index back to the control room, back to Cortana, and firing the ring. Then no one would have to worry about the flood, and he could go back to doing what he did best, protecting the human race.

It had only been a little under two days since he was given the mission to protect Cortana as Captain Keyes landed the "Pillar of Autumn" on the ring world, but he had already grown attached to her. She basically completed him, anything he couldn't do she could, anytime he needed help she was there. Now that she wasn't, he wished she was. Without her, he wasn't sure that he'd be able to make it out of here alive.

He stood still, gun at the ready, as the monitor went to open this large door from some remote location. The flood would be arriving any moment, and he only had enough shells for a few of them.

Their roars could be heard coming from all directions, he heard the sounds of their feet hitting the ground as they came dashing towards him at full speed. He began using the last few shells wisely, waiting till he could take down a few at a time with each squeeze of his trigger finger.

He began using the shotgun to shove them back as he tried to find some sort of weakness to hit them in, but there didn't seem to be one. Then he felt it, the large crushing force of a wrench on the back of his helmet.

His vision became blurry as he dropped to his knees. He was about to try to stand again, but the wrench came down a second time, knocking him onto the ground.

As he began to fade in and out of consciousness he saw someone, someone that made a spot on his lip burn. They were fighting off the seemingly endless waves of Flood as if they were nothing, then he blacked out.

As he faded back in he was going backwards down a large steel hallway, he knew he was being dragged, but by what? He faded out again.

…

You know the feeling you get when you're ripped through space and time? Well that's exactly how Taylor felt when she listened to the voice and jumped. Her body folded and expanded at the same time, it exploded and reformed instantly and she was sure she felt her heart stop.

When it came to an end she vomited, even though there was nothing to vomit because she hadn't eaten in weeks. Thinking of that made her horrendously hungry but she didn't care, she wanted to know what had just happened to her body, and the ship.

"086?" It was a question that came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

"Yeah," Taylor muttered, "I'm here."

"Good." It was Deux, he appeared on a little monitor in the room she was in. "We have work to do."

"What kind of work?" Taylor asked finally getting her legs to let her stand, "What happened to the ship?"

"A section has been blown off, and was ripped out of slip space."

"Which section?"

"The one you're in." Deux' avatar kept his firm stance and stern face.

Taylor didn't know what to think, or what to say. Where was she? Where was Zoey? What was going to happen now?

"Don't worry," Deux said, "The life support systems are in order, and we are currently heading towards an ancient Forerunner structure."

"Why shouldn't I worry about that?" Taylor asked stepping towards Deux.

He just tilted his head in question, and she put her head in her hand.

"Is Zoey alright?"

"I don't know."

"Why not, you seem to know everything else!" Taylor was frustrated, but she wasn't sure she deserved to be.

"I'm sorry," He sounded like he meant it, even though he was an AI, "We are going to making a crash landing near the index shortly."

"The index?" All the memories of the Halo games came flooding into her brain. "Why are we going there?"

"I need you to plug me into a terminal there, so I can access where we are and how to get out of here." That was a lie, he already knew where they were, and he didn't want to leave, not yet.

"Why there?" Taylor said remembering the flood, "Why not anywhere else?"

"It's where I can gather the most information." Not a total lie, but if he were human he'd feel guilt.

"Fine, I really don't have much say in the matter though do I?" Taylor began to walk out of the room.

"Where are you going?"

"I need a weapon."

…

A few hours later and Taylor was blasting through the bodies of former marines and covenant in her new Mjolnir Mark V armor. Deux had mysteriously found it in a pod that had come out of slip space at the exact moment they had.

She had put the armor on by herself for the first time, and plugged Deux into the new AI compartment in the helmet. It felt like ice was pouring through her body as he took a place in her head. He let the ship fall through the atmosphere of the Forerunner structure, that Taylor recognized as Halo, and crash into the flood infested building known as the "Library".

Her surroundings gave her the feeling of Déjà vu since she had played the "library" mission from halo one, countless times. She almost knew the entire lay out of this building, and she knew that he flood would be coming for her quickly, but they didn't seem to have any effect on her, she thought they would put fear into her mind but they didn't.

Maybe it was because she felt like she was just playing the game, she felt like if she died she would just respawn at the last checkpoint with a clean slate. Maybe it was because John had done it before, and she had beaten John, so she had to be able to do it.

It didn't matter really, the flood would still die the exact same. Not knowing why she had any fear made her feel like a real Spartan; fearless, aggressive and dangerous, all the attributes she had at the moment.

Then she heard him, John 117, the master chief. He let out a small yelp of pain and she heard the thud of his armor hitting the ground.

She rushed forward to see the flood gathering around him, and she opened fire. Her two SMGs pouring bullet after bullet into the pathetic Flood forms as they died. She reloaded and kept firing, and then she reloaded again, until they were all on the ground with John.

She knew he wasn't dead, since as soon as she saw him Deux had brought up his vitals on her HUD. He was unconscious, but if she couldn't get him out of here the flood would get him and turn him into something he was not.

Taylor leapt to his side and began to drag his body to a nice secluded area that Deux had plotted on her HUD. She set him down gently on the ground and stood over him, waiting for him to regain consciousness.

She couldn't believe what she had just done; she had crash landed a ship, fought off the flood, and saved The Master Chief. She felt empowered, like she could do anything, like she was some unstoppable force of nature. She felt good.

She actually smiled under her visor, she didn't care where Zoey was, she didn't care that she was on Halo, she didn't care that there was flood trying to kill her, she was just happy. She couldn't wait for the chief to wake up, she sure had a story to tell him, and she was sure he had a few too.

Then she remembered; how was the chief on Halo already? Wasn't he fourteen not too long ago? Something weird crept into her stomach, the feeling that she was missing something, like she was the butt of some cosmic joke and she didn't quite get the punch line.

"Deux, what year is it?"

"2552." He responded, half expecting her to faint on the spot.

Twenty seven years had passed since she set foot on that ship and entered slip space. Twenty seven years. Where did all the time go?


	9. The air that I breathe

**This is going to be the last chapter for a bit, I need some time to work out some details for the rest of the story. The next two chapters are going to be connected, like a two parter, so I will release those at the same time when they are finished. **

**I'd like to know where you think this story is going, and where you would like this story to go. So leave a review or send me a message telling me what you think. I might put out a few other short stories before I continue with this one, since I have a few ideas fresh in my mind.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing.**

The half hearted glances between two visors begged the wearer to tell stories of the adventures they had, and the ones they wished they hadn't. The earth-shattering discovery that Taylor had adventured twenty seven years ahead made the silence seem like a welcome guest, like a lost childhood friend.

They were surrounded by steel walls that harkened back to the era of their creators, casting shadows of forerunner carvings over the large pathway. The air, being cold and still, held the presence of a moving death, a parasitic organism that would devour a planet whole without a single hesitation of thought.

That did not damper the already tattered hope of the two soldiers, they kept their heads high and their weapons on the mark as they slowly crept their way through the structure. Even the slightest wisp of air attracted the attentions of the soldiers' weapons, and brought them to a dead stand still until someone nodded their helmet covered head, which was the signal for 'all clear'.

"How are you alive?" The silence became too much. "You disappeared after the augmentations; they said you died during the operation."

The question was followed by more silence as Taylor argued in her mind over the consequences of telling the Chief her story, however short it may be.

"They used me for a mission." She fashioned a lie like a blacksmith would fashion a sword. "I've been held in captivity here, for a very long time."

The chief didn't move his muscles on lockdown as he assessed the 'answer'.

"Then what is this place?" The chief said turning away from Taylor to stare at the large walls of the library. "I know it holds the key to stopping the flood, but why?"

"This might take a while." She said, retracing through the footsteps of the halo world that she read about through books and online posts.

"Let's walk and talk."

…

"Who, what, when, where, why?"

These questions mattered not to the man as he slipped through the security of ONI intelligence without alerting a single percent of personnel to his arrival. His leather jacket and heavy black boots made not a single drop of noise as he dashed from hallway to hallway in attempts to reach his final destination.

There it stood, like a solid statue of liberty to the people of the twenty first century, its glowing keys and translucent nature gave it the look of a covenant terminal, when in fact it was a center point for information on this facility.

A few key taps later and the screen materialized revealing the new mark V Mjolnir armor. The man accessed the hangar and sent a report for a pod with slip space capabilities, the report was neither denied nor looked at, and it just went through.

The man turned as he heard the clunky footsteps of an ONI intelligence officer enter the room.

"And?" The man asked, impartial to the answer the officer would give him.

"They made it sir," His voice was monotone and grumbly. "No problems on Deux's side."

"Good," The man with the slicked back black hair waved his almost ghost like hand toward the officer. "Them I'm no longer in need of your services."

The officer pulled his side arm from the leather holster at his belt, and without a single moment of trepidation pushed it against his temple and pulled the trigger. Blood and brains painted the wall a crimson color, which seemed to hold all of the last memories of a secret agent, as they slowly made their way to the floor to join their old host.

A silent pop and click of the terminal signaled that all data from the past thirty minutes had been forever erased, never to be seen by the human eye. Again, it was like he never existed.

…

The order of events didn't technically go in chronological order, but they would suffice given the current circumstances. The Great Journey was the center point of the story, but it graced the presence of a few outside events as Taylor told of how the Halos' were tied into history like a strong knot, dated back several hundred thousand years.

John absorbed it all, keeping in mind that they still had to activate the ring, even if it would mean a moral victory for the Covenants' crazy un-supported religion. The story she weaved would have been unbelievable in any other circumstance, but considering Taylor had practically returned from the depths of the heavens, he couldn't help but believe her.

"That didn't take as long as I thought it would." Taylor tried to take a crack at humor, but it fell flat on its face as the chief just simply nodded in response. "You don't talk much."

Taylor had always wanted to say that to John, ever since she had played the first halo game on the original Xbox oh so many years ago. His whole mysterious nature was alluring, it brought her into a false state of security that she feared and enjoyed way too much. She wanted to get him to open up, but prying into the elusive thoughts of the Master Chief would be like trying to drill through halo with a tooth brush.

"I say what I need to." The chief said, his stance relaxed more than it had been on Taylor's first arrival.

They walked in silence for a short distance before the annoying hums of 343 Guilty Spark could be heard in the distance.

"That's my tour guide." The chief said, not a hint of joy in his voice.

Taylor couldn't help but laugh, even if it wasn't meant as a joke it was still hilarious the way he delivered the sentence. John didn't laugh but she could just feel the seriousness that usually surrounded him dissipate, if only just a little.

"Reclaimer!" The monitor expelled his gratitude rather loudly. "Where did you get off to, I've been looking all over this installation for you."

"How far are we from the index?" The Chief didn't feel like he had the time, nor the patience to explain the situation to this monitor.

"Not far, just around the corner." His voice trailed off as he flew around the corner he was most likely referring to. The chief turned his head toward Taylor as if to say 'after you' and followed right behind her, his gun pointed towards the floor.

They rounded the corner following the robotic voice that had journeyed these halls a thousand times before, and to their beholden, they saw the index. A blue aura around the holding case to the index seemed to pierce the unseen sky as it trailed up and out of the structure, and several smaller plates of steel jutted up out of the ground surrounding the aura.

The chief continued walking towards it, but Taylor was in a state of shock, her eyes focused on the bright intensity the aura held and her body toke place as a permanent fixture in the structure.

"You comin'?" The chief had turned to face Taylor, his armor shadowed by the light that was being produced behind him.

She nodded and forced herself to continue onward, keeping her gaze on John's back rather than on the index itself.

The path before them both was smooth as the steel it was forged from, and it lead straight towards the chief's ultimate prize, the key to silencing the flood and possibly the covenant. The ambient sounds of flood and sentinel didn't even register to the chief as he reached out to grab what he came for.

The case surrounding the index began to break apart, bits and pieces of it spiraling around the center piece until they came to a rest in what looked like the same position they had started off in. There was a clean _click _and the index popped out of the case, revealing its hammer shape and the two strips of green on either side of the handle.

Taylor stood watching as John reached out and pulled it from its sheath and examined it. Before he could even begin to fathom the secrets that this item probably held 343 Guilty Spark zapped it from his hand and made it seemingly evaporate into his iris.

"Protocol requires that I take possession of the Index for transport." Spark said, noticing the surprised stance of the Reclaimer." Your organic form renders you vulnerable to infection. The Index must not fall into the hands of the Flood, before we reach the Control Room and activate the installation."

A sun shaded energy field surrounded the monitor and John as it prepared to transport them back to the control room, where they could insert the index and activate the machine known as halo. John tried to walk out of the field and grab Taylor but he couldn't move, his legs were locked into position as Taylor leapt to get next to him in time.

The chief's body vanished and rematerialized upon the glass platform that connected to the core of the control room. 343 was babbling on and on about containment protocols that meant nothing to the Chief, right now, for whatever reason, Taylor was the only thing that meant anything to him.

He used to be alone, but when he discovered that she was still here, still breathing and fighting, he wasn't alone. He had someone else to rely on, someone else to help carry the burden of the world; suffice it to say Atlas wouldn't be as proud as he once was.

Now she was gone again, stuck with the flood.

"Is something wrong?" 343 asked, a hint of melancholy in his artificial voice.

"No," The chief quickly hid his emotions for Taylor, deep in the recesses of his quite augmented mind. He wouldn't have to think about her, he wouldn't have to worry about her, he would only have to worry about the nightmares he would have in cryo, if he even stayed alive to be put in cryo. "Nothing."

….

Deux read the signals, his artificial mind tracing his movements through every step of the process. He began plotting coordinates, setting them to the spot that would further expand his knowledge, the place that would give him the ability to go anywhere he wanted. The Silent Cartographer.

"Taylor," He said, knowing that he would need her to get there. "I found a way home, back to Earth."

Taylor didn't say anything as she stood up, her SMGs in hand, and regained her composure.

"Let's go." She said and they vanished just as the Chief had, hopefully that wouldn't be the last time they would meet.

…

Friendship, is it just a word, or is it something more? Is it just a simple state of being or is it when two individuals trust each other with their lives? I would like to say neither of these questions matter, but friendship was the only thing that Zoey could think about at the moment.

She had been so mean to Taylor, and all she wanted to do was apologize, but she couldn't, she couldn't even move. After the ship had exited slip space prematurely she blacked out, the last thing she remembered seeing was Halo, the ring world the game was named after.

Now, almost a day later, she laid unmoving on a gurney. Her body wasn't being restrained, it was paralyzed, she could only look around and see the chaos that had taken place near her. There were dead and wounded UNSC everywhere, that's all she could see; it looked as if she was the only one alive if you could even call it that.

Then he came, him and his small squad of soldiers. They got her off the gurney and carried her into a ship, she couldn't tell what type of ship it was or even if it was human, but that didn't matter, maybe these people had medical supplies. Maybe they could fix her.

They did, they injected her with some kind of liquid and she passed out, awaking several hours later with a stiff back and neck pain. She sat up, her Spartan mentality allowing her to wade through the pain, and looked around.

They were still on the ground, they dust was swirling in the form of a small tornado outside of a window. The room was a mess, equipment laying about on the floor, and blood soaked sponges were stacked in the corner forming a small pool of it on the ground under them.

Then the door slid open, and there he stood, the man who saved her. He looked pleased to see she was alive, as a large grin appeared on his face. His hands were folded behind his back, his military uniform being smudged with blood and other assorted substances and his face had streaks of oil across it.

"Ma'am." He began; his voice was oh so familiar. "I'm Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson; we're getting off of this ring."


	10. No Surprises Part 1

**This is part one of what might be the end of "I'd Go With You". Read and Review. **

The sound of gunfire echoed through the snow filled canyons Halo 1 was known for. Small brawls were scattered amongst the rocks and rubble like confetti; the guns and grenades making for an impressive light show. And there, in the middle of it all was the Master Chief; standing in all of his glory.

He had two things on his mind: stopping halo, and finding Taylor. Cortana had given him the unforeseen news that the Halo array was a doomsday device instead of a saving grace and made him kick his ass in gear to stop the flood and get out alive. Taylor was the only person he could think about, she was the only person that mattered.

And thus begins "Assault on the Control Room".

…

With her back against the wall Taylor blind fired her SMG toward the onslaught of covenant forces, not killing a single one. Deux was plugged into the computer in the lower levels of this construct while she was ordered to stop anything from stopping him. She wasn't sure what Deux was doing, but he said it would get them home, so she was going to do whatever it took to help him.

Her fist smashed straight through a grunts skull as it came around the corner and she used it as a shield; dashing from her original cover to a more protective one with its body in front of her. Her armor was plasma scarred and covered in blood, but she had to keep fighting, this could be her only chance to get out of this place. But what if she didn't want to?

_That's nonsense; this world is nothing but fighting and death._

_But it's fun._

_I suppose you're right, but what about Zoey?_

_She doesn't like us anymore remember?_

_Oh yeah._

Taylor couldn't help but talk to herself; she didn't have anyone else to talk to, and not talking got boring after a while.

_That's it? You're just going to give up?_

_No point in arguing with you. You are me after all._

_Good point._

She smiled to herself as she continued to fire into the soldiers.

_You know, even with all of this death and destruction this place is still beautiful._

_I was thinking the exact same thing._

_Of course you were._

The silent cartographer had been her favorite level in Halo 1, but sadly she would never be able to play it again because seeing those animated graphics and comparing them to the real thing just wasn't a match. Being here, on this island on a ring world in the far out reaches of space, was a lot better than setting in her room any day of the week.

She continued to shoot her gun, until she finally reached the end of her clips; the gun made that oh-to-familiar clicking sound to signify that it was in fact empty. Taylor tossed it to the ground, un-clipping two plasma grenades from her damaged armor and arming them.

The two blue balls of plasma glowed bright in her hands as she slid out from cover and tossed them at the heart of the covenant forces. They ignited sending a wave of death into the grunts and elites that surrounded them. The silver forerunner hallway was now empty except for the sound of her breathing.

Taylor sighed as she heard the covenant sending in their reinforcements.

…

The pelican's engines roared into life, knocking the dust up from under it as it began to lift into the air. The pilot had a worried appearance as she looked unto the barren wasteland that lay before her eyes; the crew shared her worry.

Zoey was the only one that wasn't afraid at this moment, her heart beat staying below a panicked state. Avery Johnson kept his stance firm even though beneath his exterior he was planning his will and thinking of how life in heaven would fit his style; it wouldn't.

"Car….break…help!"

Static burst from the previously dead com station relaying a jumbled message that did not mean a thing, but Zoey recognized the voice. She sprung from her seat and directed the pilot to replay the message.

"Cart…a break…someone help!"

Taylor; she needed help and Zoey might be able to help her.

"Where is this message coming from?"

"I'm not sure, it must be underground."

"Play it again."

…

"This is Spartan 086, I'm at the forerunner structure known as 'the silent cartographer'." Taylor ducked her head as a plasma grenade exploded near her position. "Give me a break! Please someone help, I need immediate evac."

She knew it was probably hopeless, but she had to try. Covenant had piled up around the island, making it impossible to leave from the lower levels of the Cartographer. Deux had plotted an escape route but couldn't access it until they were above ground, so for now they were trapped.

Taylor began to count down from ten, preparing herself for a last ditch attempt to clear the hallway that led to freedom. She dropped her empty SMGs and clenched her hands into fists and squeezed her eyes shut for the last three seconds of the countdown.

"3…2…1!"

Five elites, eighteen grunts and two jackals lined the hallway, all aiming straight for Taylor. She charged as a grunt prepped a sticky grenade. Her foot connected with its chest sending it back into an elite; the explosion killed them both.

The plasma pistol the grunt was holding was falling through the air as Taylor brought her foot down and caught it. She held down the trigger charging up a concentrated blast and fired it at one of the grunts packs causing a pretty explosion that killed two more of the elites and a few more grunts.

Chucking the plasma pistol at a golden armored elite she brought her elbow down onto its head, causing it to gush purple blood onto the floor and her armor. All golden elites held plasma swords so she reached down and grabbed it off of the lifeless corpse's body clenching down on the handle to activate the deadly blade.

The final elite charged at her, plasma grenade active; what a foolish mistake. Her Spartan reflexes kicked in and she cut the hand that held the grenade off. It fell to the ground between them and they locked eyes for what felt like hours until it detonated. Both of their shields held and the elite began to draw his weapon to finish his prey; but Taylor already had the sword plunged into its chest.

She let the body drop to the ground with the sword still stuck inside before walking down the blood soaked hallways and up the stairs at the end. That's when she heard the familiar sound of a pelican.

Exiting from the cartographer Taylor saw the welcome green color of a friendly pelican and the even more welcoming green Spartan armor holding out its hand to help her get in. She took it, hoping that all was well between the two sets of armor; old or new, friends till the end.

...

He had done it; he had all the information he could ever dream of having. He could go anywhere he wanted without the help of a human host, without the limitations of human minds. If he wanted to change the course of the covenant armada stationed near the delta halo he could, and no one would be able to stop him.

Deux rubbed his artificial eyes as he sifts through the data; it was mind bending to think that he could ultimately control everything. But there was only one thing he wanted to control, and to get to it he would need the help of someone, the only person that knows where it is and what it is.

This person is the same one that sent both the NOVA bomb and Mark V armor through the creases of slip space so that they would arrive to aid Taylor. This same person is the only known A.I to be able to make jumps through slip space so precise that they could take you to a different year of the choosing.

This A.I is the only A.I recorded to have survived rampancy and take on a basically human form. Their ability to manipulate data has given them a lifelike body with lifelike possessions. This A.I walks on black leather boots to match its black leather jacket.

This A.I was Deux' brother.

…

John chucked a grenade into a vent located on "The Pillar of Autumn"; it was followed by a loud explosion and a grand stand from Cortana. He continued the process with hopes that it would cause a chain reaction in "the Pillar of Autumn" so that the halo array could be stopped without eradicated all sentient life in the universe.

He knew it was stupid, but he wished Taylor was here to help him. He needed someone real to lean on, someone real to be with; in fact he just needed something real.

…

Sergeant Johnson couldn't believe what Taylor had told him and his men. The ring world that they had just recently landed on was about to exterminate everything, but if they were lucky Master Chief was trying to stop it by blowing up the ring; so either way they were fucked.

"No!" Taylor yelled a little frantically, "We can still escape; we just need to find a ship that can hold all of us."

"You're shittin' me right?" Johnson spoke up for the first time, "If you haven't noticed that pelican is all we've got."

"We'll borrow a different one." She turned to face him, her visor masking the doubt in her eyes.

"What the hell else are we gonna do?" Johnson turned to face the small group of marines with him and Zoey, "We're getting the hell off of this ring!"

They all burst into cheers, all except for Zoey who just stood still, her eyes fixed on Taylor. She couldn't find the nerve to just say 'sorry' and it ate her up inside. Zoey was just confused; she didn't know what to do about the kiss her and Taylor had shared. She didn't know if it was because she loved her, or if it was just out of fear. Ever since she arrived in this messed up reality, everything has been getting…well, messed up; and she hated it.

"Sir!" One of the marines behind a com set beckoned for Johnson. They whispered to each other for a moment before Johnson turned to face everyone again.

"It seems the covenant know of the Chiefs plan, and they want to stop him." No one made a sound. "But we're gonna stop them."

Everyone cheered again, except for Zoey and Taylor; they kept quiet.

"Grab your gear, we're movin' in five."

Taylor and Zoey looked at each other for the first time since before they arrived on Halo, then they walked away.

…

The leather jacket bounced with every step the A.I took down the hallway; his boots, again, didn't make a sound. His laptop was held firmly between his right arm and his chest and the wallet that belonged to Taylor was continually being tossed into the air and caught by his left hand.

The hall was laced with heat and sound detectors but they didn't pick up the apparent intruder, nothing ever did. He just quickly made his way toward the room at the end of the passage so that he could set up his computer and sift through the data that had arisen from nowhere.

The door opened and shut, the laptop was set on a desk and the A.I took a seat on a chair that materialized as he entered the room. The laptop came to life, the screen lighting up and a computerized voice welcoming the owner.

"Good morning Sept."

"It's a particularly confusing morning computer." Sept said as he began to type on the keyboard, bringing up a few video feeds. The first one was off Deux traveling through the universe trying to find the one thing he didn't know about; it made Sept laugh. The second was of Taylor and her rag-tag team of survivors preparing to head off the covenant; this too made Sept laugh. The third was of Spartan 117 as he began to set off the chain reaction that would destroy the halo rings.

Sept smiled. When the ring began to destroy itself he would act, moving his pawns closer to the king on the other side of the board. He let Deux begin his rampancy without a single flaw occurring, and now he would only have to get him and the girls back to Earth in one piece. That shouldn't be a problem.

His plan seemed so chaotic in his artificial brain, but everything seemed to be working; all the pieces were falling into place without a snitch. He didn't know what he was going to do with Zoey though; she was no longer needed in his plan. In fact, she never was.

It was the mere random variable in his first trans-universal slip space jump that allowed for her to even arrive here in the first place. He immediately concocted a plan to get rid of her, and keep Deux on the right path all at the same time.

Hitting a few more keys a few more video feeds popped onto his screen. The first was a paused video feed labeled "Arrival", and it showed two girls lying on hospital stretcher in a room similar to the one he was in. The second was of a cryo-tube that lay in an apparently empty room. On the tube was a nameplate that read "Cosmo". He closed it after viewing it for a few seconds.

The third and final new video feed was of the covenant war force that Taylor though she could stop. She could, but not without Sept's help. He tapped on the screen and he was immediately transferred to the onboard computer of the lead phantom of the force. Without hesitation he veered it into a phantom that was adjacent to his and quickly transferred himself back to his room in front of his laptop.

He watched as his small action caused six of the twenty phantoms to crash in a great ball of fire and plasma. He smirked and closed that video feed, focusing his attention to the video labeled "Arrival". He studied the paused image of the two girls before hitting play.

PLAY VIDEO:

The video showed a completely barren room; the walls were made of steel and the floor looked as cold and lifeless as a corpse. There wasn't any movement and there wasn't a sound being made, the video looked as bleak as the room it was being shot in was.

Then there was a shudder followed by a small ball of light being formed in the center of the room. The ball of light began to expand until it filled the camera, then it dissipated almost instantly leaving the image of two girls lying on the icy floor.

The girls were dressed in clothes standard to any 21st century teenager and they looked as if they were beaten almost to death. They laid lifeless on the floor their skin looking paler and paler by the second, almost as if they were being drained of their blood.

A door opened somewhere in the room that the camera couldn't see and two men dressed in ONI uniforms walked up next to the two girls; their movements mimicking those of robots. They each lifted one of the girls and placed them on stretchers that they had apparently dragged in with them. They then rolled them out of the room and the video changed to static for a few moments before switching back to an empty hospital ward.

The two "ONI" officers pushed the two stretchers into the room and began to de-clothe the two girls, removing all personal possessions from them. After the girls' garments were removed the two officers left the room and returned moments later with two sets of military sleeping attire, which they gently put on the two girls.

The two officers then took seats at two separate desks and began filling out the proper paper work to make it seem like these two had always been in the "Spartan II" project. The video turned to static again and Sept closed out of the video feed.

He remembered how hard it was to calculate how he was going to get Taylor from her universe to his. He remembered how hard it was to find the two perfect lackeys from ONI to do the dirty work his artificial hands wouldn't allow him to do. He remembered how hard it was to put all of his faith in these two girls that he had never met, and who would have to disguise themselves as Spartans without any prior knowledge except for a strand of videogames released in their universe.

He remembered how easy it was to 'steal' the NOVA bomb from the future and send it back to aid Taylor and re-adjust the 'time line'. He remembered how easy it was to acquire a set of Mark V Mjolnir armor and get it to Taylor after making a very complicated jump through space-time.

He was thinking about how easy it would be to get Taylor to kill Zoey.


	11. No Surprises Part 2

Taylor half expected the pelican to be immediately shot out of the air, land in a huge fiery pile and be continually barraged by covenant weaponry; but luckily that wasn't the case. It hovered above the ground as the marines, Zoey and her leapt from the opened hatch and landed on the dusty ground, weapons prepped for battle.

The covenant came in bulk; 14 phantoms full of grunts, jackals, elites and hunters. They didn't stop to take on the small group of marines at first; they merely flew right past them. That is until Johnson began to tear though them with the mounted turret on the back of the pelican.

They dropped their soldiers of bereavement onto the battlefield and laid down suppressive fire with their heated plasma weapons. The marines and the two Spartans took cover until the pilots flew off and left the troops to do the dirty work.

The marines let their trigger fingers speak for them, bullets spraying along the covenant shield technology and periodically killing one or two of them. Johnson yelled out his orders that no one paid any attention to, not even him. After a while he just blurted out random strands of curse words and that got more response from the marines than the orders did.

Taylor, her SMG ablaze, kept her eyes focused on the covenant. Her motions were flawless just as they were whenever danger was near. It seemed like, instead of adrenaline, her body produced Spartan and rushed it to all corners of her body when she was in trouble.

Her face stayed stern until she saw Zoey shift from behind her cover; s small plasma bolt from one of the grunts hit Zoey's shields and immediately drained them. Taylor aimed for the grunt, letting her finger squeeze the last bit of life out of it. Zoey didn't get back behind cover.

That's right; she still had the out-dated armor. She didn't have Deux screaming into her ear every time she was _almost_ hit, and being torn through space and time probably fried her self-preservation systems in her suit.

"Zoey!" Taylor yelled out as she tried to give her covering fire. Zoey turned, and that's when it happened.

The grunt, which was just recently put on active duty after recovering from a knee injury, tapped on the shoulder of his grunt brother Oyjoo. Oyjoo was a hateful grunt whose only counterpart was Grapee, the grunt who just tapped on his shoulder.

Grapee, in the raspy high pitched language of his home world, directed Oyjoo to aim for the 'shining grass man'. Of course there isn't really a 'shinning grass man', but considering the small brain capacity of grunts, that was the first and only adjective that came to mind.

They both primed charges with their seemingly pathetic plasma pistols and fired toward Zoey, who is this mysterious 'shinning grass man' by the way. They connected, quickly burning through her armor and scorching the weak flesh that encased her.

Zoey dropped to the ground, clutching at the black holes in her armor where blood would have began pouring out if the wound wouldn't have cauterized from the intense heat of the plasma. Taylor watched in a sort of daze as her friend plummeted to the ground and the two grunts rejoiced only forty feet away. Two bursts from her SMG silenced them, but they wouldn't help Zoey.

Taylor rushed for Zoey, ignoring the heat of the battle or the calls from her fellow soldiers. Her knees buckled beneath her as she approached Zoey's injured body, allowing her to kneel close to her face.

Taylor couldn't find any words to say, or at least not any that could be screamed over Zoey's yelps of pain, so she just grabbed onto Zoey's hand gripping as tight as she could. Zoey squeezed back, unable to do much else besides try to lower her heart rate.

Deux, while trying to calculate the jump that would be needed to get off of this ring before it went catastrophic, saw his opportunity. If he was able to get this to work, his brother would be able to get him the location he needs. It seemed like a senseless trade, but Sept was always planning just like Deux, so they each knew that for a plan to work all the pieces had to be in place.

"Taylor," Deux began, trying to sound frightened, "I need to get inside of her systems, I can reactivate any of the systems she might have lost during the jump including her shield generator and her self repair function."

"How?"

That's right; Zoey's suit didn't have the slot capable of holding an Artificial Intelligence. Deux would just have to improvise, something his brother had taught him in the short time they had been together.

"Just give her your helmet; if you stay behind cover you should be fine."

It seemed as if he didn't have to add in the last part about being 'fine' because Taylor already had her helmet off after the short pause between helmet and if. Zoey had found a way to keep herself calm so removing her helmet was easy, and slipping Taylor's on her head was even more simple.

Zoey gasped her last breath.

The cold chill that is usually associated with a bucket of ice poured over her body. Deux raced through her nerves, learning the work of her creators; learning the way of his new machine.

Controlling a machine using and artificially created brain is about as easy as using a human brain to control the human body; you just have to be a seasoned pro. Deux was; he had been programmed to control large machines, larger than a Mark IV Mjolnir suit and a lot more complex. His home for his entire seven year life span had been a Class two Halcyon cruiser in the midst of rebel conflict.

This would be a child's play.

His mock eye lids blinked out of astonishment; Deux actually did it and without much of a problem. He would have to put more faith in his brother next time.

His hands flipped through the files, which took a home on his computer's hard drive, looking for one in particular. There were so many that it was hard, even for an advanced A.I, to find anything in this mess.

There were files collected from all stretches of space, all dating to different times and having subsections to list the changes that were made during his and Deux' space/time journeys. Needless to say they have changed a lot, and bringing in two people from a sub universe of the one he dwelled in has also seemed to change quite a few things that probably won't affect anything in the long run.

This file in particular was going to be exceedingly hard to locate because it only existed at one time period for only a matter of seconds. The file came from ONI, dated to March 3rd, 2553, and it was the only recorded slip space time jump besides the ones he had helped Deux do.

This 'fist ever' slip space time jump (SST) had no prior planning; it was by complete coincidence that it had happened. It was almost as if there was some sort of greater being that was trying to help Sept with his plan. It occurred during the winter of 2552 outside of the Ark, where the 'Forward Unto Dawn' was cut in half by a slip space rupture causing the back half to shoot out in some unknown location at some unknown time. It was similar to the tactic used by Deux to get Taylor from Spartan training to Halo, except his was controlled but still not predictable.

He found the file. After second of scanning it, he deemed it useless. He cursed under his cold artificial breath before setting back in his chair.

"Cosmo," He said, his voice coming out in a long drawn out gasp of air, "I have a feeling I'll be needing you."

His voice had a slight Bostonian accent and it sounded young, mid twenties range at the most. Whoever programmed this A.I obviously didn't realize what it would be doing, because the last thing you would think when you saw him was 'harmful'. He looked like a stereotypical 'greaser' from the 50-60's with the jet black, slicked back hair and the leather jacket to match.

He laughed, and at almost the exact same time Zoey burst back into life, kind of. Her vitals were stable, her pulse was there, artificial or not, and she seemed to be ready to fight. Deux had to keep her disguised for mere minutes before Taylor re-continued fighting.

Taylor hoisted Zoey up off of the ground.

"I'll give you a hug when we get back home." Taylor's voice came over the intercom before she turned and fired her SMG into the slowly advancing covenant war force.

Zoey lifted her gun as well, and aimed it toward her target. Deux had fired guns one hundred times the size of this magnum, but this still felt bizarre. Maybe it was because he actually had to watch the finger pull the trigger and the lifeless corpse hit the ground this time instead of just watching the explosions of miss-matching colors and steel. Maybe he was feeling guilt for what he was about to do.

A.I's are artificial, so therefore so is everything their brains concoct; emotions being the main one. A.I's in fact don't even feel emotion, so this 'guilt' Deux was feeling was more than likely just the resistance of the brain he was sharing with the half dead human inhabitant of this armor.

So he pulled the trigger.


	12. Question

I want to stop you now, and say this is not another chapter. This is merely me asking you a question. First of all, I realize how "unstructured" this story is, and a year ago, in my own head, it all made sense. But times change, people change, and my ideas change. I've continuously come to this story with the intent of at least putting a final chapter up, but I have no way of continuing it. I'm sorry.

That's where the question comes in. Would you like me to re-do it? Same two characters (Taylor/Zoey) but a completely different story. There wouldn't be any time jumping, and it would most likely not start with them being inducted into the Spartan-II program. I'm not sure how it would start exactly, but that's because, if no one wants me to do it, then I don't even want to think about it.

I've got a few fan-fictions buzzing around in my head, including an Avatar: The Last Airbender fic, a deviously tricky Inception fic, and my current work "The Last Girl on Earth", so I don't want to add this in unless people want me to. This story has been dead for a long time, I know that, but it still gets views, just about every month, so I suppose people are at least semi-interested.

So anyways, leave a review, or send me a message/email telling me if you'd like me to redo it. If so, then I'll see what I can do, because this was my first chapter-fic, and it still holds a little place in my heart. Thanks for making this my most reviewed story as of now.

-DMG


	13. A lot of Surprises Part 1

Taylor was startled. Not really caught off guard, but startled none the least. There were gun shots going off all around her, but one coming from the corpse of a body she had just declared dead was a bit startling. She turned and what she saw would stick in her mind forever. There was Zoey, but it wasn't really Zoey. What stood there resembled a zombie from a George Romero movie, with a set of spartan's mjolnir armor of course. But the body sagged and swayed, the knees buckled and went rigid. It seemed as if it was being held up by strings attached to Zoey's shoulders. Taylor shuddered.

"Zoe?" Taylor asked, knowing that it couldn't be Zoey. A Spartan would never stand like that, nor would a human. It looked completely ridiculous, and frightening. It had to be Deux. Something had been wrong with him ever since that night on Harvest. Taylor wasn't sure if Zoey had felt it, but she had. Now that she remember that, she felt stupid for letting him anywhere near Zoey.

_I was just afraid,_ she told herself. _Zoey would have done the same for me if I had been dying. _

"Yep, it's your old pal Zoey." Of course it wasn't. The voice was demonic, mechanic and just plain wrong. Taylor felt her fear and anger go away and get replaced with the calm feeling that Master Chief must feel, the feeling of being a Spartan.

"I don't care what you're doing in there, Deux. But if you don't let go of my friend I'll make sure you never forget how weak you are."

"Ah, you see…."

"No, listen to me. You can't even hold that body upright, let alone actually hit me with one of those bullets." Taylor still felt calm. "One of my fists on the other hand, can disintegrate that little chip you're stored on in two quick movements. So keep your damn mouth shut and I might just be able to forget you even tried this foolish move."

"Without me, Zoey won't survive." Deux thought he had her there, he smiled inwardly to himself. But Taylor was already behind Zoey's body, her hand thrusting towards the helmet and removing the chip. Two quick moves she had said, but she didn't crush him. She merely dropped him in the dirt for the time being and caught Zoey when she began to fall.

Zoey felt two things in rapid succession. She felt death, she breathed her last breath. But then she felt like she had been shocked, her bones shaking in her skin and her chest burning. She couldn't see or hear a thing, she felt like she was suspended in jello. But soon that was over too. She felt like death again.

"Johnson!"

The gunfire was nearly deafening.

"Johnson!"

"Yes, ma'am?" The sergeant turned from his cover to look at the two Spartans and was surprised when one of them was limp in the other's arms.

"We need to go, now! She needs help!"

"Yes, ma'am. I'll see what I can do!"

Johnson, remembering the ring world they were on was about to explode, remembering his initial objective, looked to his men.

"Soldiers, we're grabbing one of those ships. On me, on me!"


	14. A decision

I hate to break to those of you who still care about this story, but I'm going to redo it, almost entirely. I might keep this one up for those of you who like it, but the title of the revamp will be the same. Now pretty much what's going to happen is that I'm going to keep the two main characters (Taylor, Zoey) and just change what happens to them.

I'm going to try to do what some writers call "being honest". I know that sounds like it's pretty straight forward and that's cause it is. I'm not going to lie in this story. Not about the characters, what happens to them, who lives, who dies, what they think and feel. I'm going to be true to Taylor and Zoey and what does that mean for the story? It's going to be more realistically done, a bit more brutal, a bit more sensual. Just more like real life.

Cause I went through "I'd Go With You" yesterday and pretty much laughed at how like childish it is. Not that that's bad, I like childish, but it's just not how this is supposed to be. Now, I'm going to start the rewrite immediately. I hope you all read it and don't absolutely hate it.

-John


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